To Put Her Back Together
by Crystalkei
Summary: A year after the portal is destroyed, Skye is still being stalked by Lucas and Carter has vowed to kill him. Trigger warning for discussion of rape  not pictured just discussed.


Carter reached the camp in record time and blew past Mira on his rush to find the object of concern. He was sweaty, out of breath, high on adrenaline, and despite his confidence in his abilities, he was terrified.

In the dark room he made out her outline as she lay on their bed. She'd been ill and he'd done everything he could to block out the light since it made her headaches worse. Three large steps and he sat on the cot next to her. He touched her shoulder gently, partly to alert her to his presence, partly to assure himself that she was safe and alive.

"Princess," he whispered when she stirred. She groaned as she turned to face him. He'd been gone a few days and he hated that he'd missed anything. Her face looked a bit more swollen but she smiled and he returned the smile and kissed her lightly.

"What's the matter?" He relished the fact he could read her easily, but he hated that she had the same ability with him. There were things he wished he could keep from her but right now he needed to warn her.

"We had a bit of an issue," he explained as calmly as he could. Trying to keep the anger out of his voice was a task but he didn't need her more upset. She'd been so sick and the stress of what he was about to tell her had the potential to cause her health to deteriorate quickly. She looked up at him and he swallowed thickly. "Lucas is back and he's still fucked up enough to think you belong to him."

Skye gasped and Carter moved to lie beside her. He wrapped his arms around her expanding middle and pulled her to his chest. She sobbed and he held her tighter. He kissed the top of her head and whispered comforting words to calm her.

"Why is this still happening?" she cried.

"It's not happening. I'm going to take care of it. I just needed to make sure you were okay," he said firmly. "He said some things and I just, I had to check that you were safe. I'm going back. I'm going to find him. I'm going to finish this."

He wondered if the words might scare her. But she showed no aversion to them. Instead she kissed his chest where her head was nestled. "Do it. Please. I wish I could do it myself."

Once she was calm, Carter kissed her again before getting up to leave. He searched the trunk for his favorite knife and a few other miscellaneous things to take with him.

At the bottom of the tree, Mira stood waiting for him. "I heard, but I'm confused as to why you came running back here instead of just shooting him between the eyes." There wasn't any sympathy in her voice, not that he expected any. She was clearly perturbed he hadn't done what any Sixer was ordered to do if they spotted the man. Carter nibbled at his thumb, it was a habit from long ago but it was seldom seen these days. He was never nervous.

"Lucas said he was the one making her sick." Mira scoffed and Carter shook his head. "I know, I see it now for the diversion it was, but I had to check."

"And what about your little cuddle session makes you confident he isn't?" she asked curtly.

"There's just no way, he knew what buttons to push, it was a ploy to get away, but I'm going to find him and I'm going to kill him."

"Really? The man is a crackpot crazy genius, if he wanted to poison her without our knowledge, without anyone else getting sick, he could do it. I think you're just being hopeful." Mira added. "What if he is? No one else is sick. Her diet isn't any different than the rest of ours, just because she's-" Carter interrupted her.

"Why would he do that? He wants her alive so that he can treat her like a pet. And why do you care?" he asked harshly. "You don't like her, you think she and her mother are dead weight, especially now. Just let me go and kill him."

"I'm going to let you kill him, it was my original order that you ignored when you had the chance." She glared at him. "But if he's hurting her don't you need to know how?"

Carter blew out a breath of frustration and bit the inside of his cheek. His fingers were twitchy and he couldn't think properly. Rage pumped through his veins and he couldn't stand still. Mira wasn't wrong and though he didn't want to see the logic, he submitted. A radio sounded at Mira's waist and she lifted it to listen.

"Lucas is here," a voice crackled. "We've got him in the sniper's sights, but I wasn't sure if you wanted to do it yourself." Carter grabbed the box out of her hand shocking Mira.

"He's mine," he growled before tossing the radio back and her and taking off for the spot where the radio transmission hailed from.

Sure enough, in a small clearing, on the outskirts of the camp, stood Lucas Taylor. Dirty, limping, and a taunting smile on his face. Carter moved passed his men and stood directly in front of Lucas. A knee to his stomach and Lucas was on his knees on the ground. Lucas just laughed and lifted his face again in mocking.

"Skye belongs to me," he said before Carter punched him in the mouth. Lucas fell on his side on the ground. "If you kill me, she'll never get better."

"I don't believe you!" Carter yelled. Two could play crazy. He knelt on the ground next to Lucas bending over to whisper, "It's just meant to manipulate us. But guess what? I don't believe you and Mira still wants you dead. She doesn't care whether Skye lives or dies, so your game won't work."

Lucas spit blood at Carter. He narrowed his eyes and took a moment to wipe the offending liquid from his cheek. "Why did you come here without a weapon? I don't mind beating you to death, but do you have that much confidence in your mind games?"

"If you'd just give her to me, I can make her better," Lucas said with a lecherous grin. Carter stood up and kicked him in the stomach again. He took pleasure in the crack of ribs as his boot connected.

"She doesn't belong to anyone," Carter said before kicking him again. "Skye doesn't want you." Kick. "She doesn't need you." Kick. "She's never wanted you." Kick. "She _will never_ want you." Lucas was bloodied, clutching his middle, but still the cruel smile remained in place.

"Carter, stop!" The voice of Jim Shannon surprised him. He glared at the interloper and kicked Lucas in the face for good measure. The Sheriff of Terra Nova had a gun pointed at Carter, but then shifted his aim to Lucas.

"If you're looking to get a kick in, get in line," Carter replied smartly. "But I'm going to kill him."

"It's looking like you're pretty close to your goal," he said coming a little closer and looking over the bloodied man on the ground. A few more Terra Novan soldiers flanked Jim but all stayed back, weapons pointed at Carter.

"Taylor wants to collect his wayward son and sent you to bring him in?"

"No," Jim answered looking Carter in the eyes. "Why do you want to kill him?"

"What difference does it make?" he knew Skye once trusted this man but he didn't. Carter didn't trust anyone from Terra Nova.

"Lucas has been poisoning his father, making him sick for the last three months," Jim explained. "I need to take him in so that my wife can find out how he's been doing it." Carter's stomach dropped and he clenched his fists at his side. Jim must have noticed as his own countenance changed. "Who is sick? Did he try to take Mira down?"

Lucas sputtered in what Carter assumed was another of his maniacal laughs but Jim wasn't wrong. He'd beat him within an inch of his life, and he wasn't going to be able to communicate well after that last kick to his face. Carter didn't regret the beating even a little.

"No, she's fine, though she did give us the order to kill this man on sight," Carter replied with a nudge to Lucas' knee. "No, it's…" he paused unsure if he wanted to disclose the information.

As far as Terra Nova was concerned Skye disappeared a year ago. They knew she was the spy, but Mira, not wanting to be bothered with the possible fallout, was ready to kick her out of the camp. It was Carter that had convinced Mira to keep Skye and her mother. She'd been useful despite Mira's concerns, Skye had been another set of hands to help with frequent injuries and she'd even been rather successful helping in terms of hard labor. She wasn't afraid to get dirty and with instruction had helped repair roofs after a particularly nasty windstorm.

Taylor had once or twice sent people to snoop around and see if Skye was with the Sixers, but Carter had lied easily, telling Taylor's men that she was long gone.

"Well, who is it? Who's sick?" Jim prodded. But it was Lucas who muttered the name. Carter pulled his knife but Jim put a solid hand on his arm. It wasn't threatening, but it was clear that Jim wasn't going to let him kill Lucas.

"What was that?" Jim bent over Lucas straining to make out the slurred words. He knew the moment Jim had figured it out, his eyes widened and he looked to Carter shocked. Carter schooled his own features and looked Jim in the eye without emotion as the man stood. "She's been here the whole time, hasn't she?"

"What would Taylor have done if she'd returned?" Carter said calmly. "He'd have thrown her in the brig to rot, or tossed her out the gates."

"You don't really know what would have happened," the Sheriff replied. He didn't seem surprised anymore. Carter wondered if perhaps he'd suspected.

"Doesn't matter now, she's sick." He gestured to Lucas on the ground. "If he's really the reason, if he's telling the truth, I'm going to find out how to make her better, but I'm going to need you to move."

"You think you're going to cut it out of him?"

"Should work nicely."

"I can't let you do that," Jim said sternly.

"How did you plan to get Taylor back to full health? Just hoping that if Lucas is in your brig he's not doing the deed somehow? Skye hasn't been around Lucas in six months and yet she's still sick!" His calm façade was cracking. He ran a hand through his hair and Jim tilted his head as though he were working something out.

"Let me take her back to Terra Nova, my wife is working on some medication, a cure."

"Hell no," Carter snapped. "I'm not letting her out of my sight."

"What the fuck is going on?" Mira interrupted from behind Carter. "He should be dead by now," she said pointing at Lucas and coming to stand next to Carter.

"Sheriff won't let me figure out why Skye is sick, he won't let me kill him either," Carter said stiffly.

"I'm going to take him back to Terra Nova, Taylor is sick and he's the one responsible," Jim explained. "Sounds like Skye was his experiment. Whatever he's done with her, it's probably the same. My wife might be able to figure it out, at least keep her more healthy than you're able to."

The implication that he hadn't been taking care of Skye made Carter practically growl. But Mira touched his shoulder and grounded him. Though she didn't like Skye, didn't like the arrangement, Mira and Carter were friends and that was the only reason he was afforded anything in relation.

"He goes with her," Mira demanded of Jim. "And they can't be prisoners. Either of them. I'll come for them if you go back on that." Shannon nodded and motioned for the soldiers behind him to take Lucas. Mira pulled Carter away so that they could speak privately.

"Take the two of them," Mira said to him low. Carter glared at her feeling like she was dumping them on Taylor's doorstep just to get rid of them. But she shook her head as if she read his mind. "You can come back if you want, but you've done all you can here, she's not getting better. This is the only way to take care of your family. Don't be an idiot. Take her. And when this is done, I don't care how you do it but you kill him. Kill that bastard Lucas."

Carter nodded and motioned for one of his men to fetch Skye's mother and he set off to collect Skye.

"What is going on?" Skye asked when he entered their room. He was surprised to see her standing, dressed even, she'd been so sick she hardly left the bed, but he could tell she'd been worried. "I heard all the commotion, then Mira came up here and told me to get dressed. What's happening? Is he coming? Is he going to take me?"

"Never," Carter said grabbing a bag and shoving clothing into it.

"Are we running away? I thought you were going to kill him." She was agitated and panicked, a wave of guilt washed over him. He wished he could have killed Lucas. She paced, her hands on her hips and he stopped her with hands on her waist.

"Change of plans, we're going to Terra Nova." He watched her face closely and wasn't surprised when her brow furrowed. "Lucas is making you sick, we don't know how, but he's the reason you're sick, he's done the same thing to his father and a doctor there is trying to find out how to fix it. We're going so you can get better."

Skye just shook her head. "No, I'm sick for one reason, you don't know, you aren't a doctor, maybe the closest thing to one here, but you aren't a doctor. This could be perfectly normal. My mother said she was so sick she couldn't move with me."

"I wanted to believe that, too, but I haven't for a while now. You're too sick. It's not just this," he put a hand on her stomach. "Shannon won't let me kill Lucas and he won't let me beat it out of him so we don't have a choice, he said that his wife could help. She's been working on Taylor, she's confident she can fix it." It was a lie. No doctor could cure whatever it was unless they knew the poison, but he'd break into the brig himself and beat it out of Lucas if Shannon couldn't get the information.

"Dr. Shannon is amazing," Skye said absently as she turned to pick up a few things herself. It was clear she had already decided to go along with the plan. "And it might be nice to feel air conditioning again. But what if they throw me in the brig? What if they throw _you_ in the brig?" Her voice rose in pitch and he put the bag he'd been packing down and caught her face in his hands.

"We'll be fine." His face was soft and he hoped that she'd be comforted by it. "I need you to be healthy. And don't think I won't kill him. I will. He will not haunt you anymore." She nodded nervously and they continued packing the last few items that would fit in the bag before walking back to the spot where Jim stood.

Carter was surprised to see Shannon smile warmly when he saw Skye. If he was surprised by her pregnant belly or her sickly appearance he didn't show it.

"Look at that beautiful woman," Jim said kindly. "Long time no see." Skye shrunk into Carter at the words and he shook his head at Shannon's perplexed look. "We've already loaded your mother, which seems like a fun story since I was under the impression she passed away years ago, but I think I might be putting some pieces together."

Still Skye wouldn't look at Shannon. Once they were loaded into the rover, Skye nestled closely to Carter, her mother in the back on a cot, and one other soldier in the front with Jim, they started the journey back to Terra Nova.

"Something terrible happened to her, didn't it?" Jim asked over his shoulder. Carter could tell the man wasn't an idiot because he'd waited for Skye to fall asleep before he'd even attempted conversation.

"It's a very long story that starts with Lucas Taylor being a scary mother fucker who wouldn't leave her alone," Carter offered. "She doesn't like men to talk to her. She doesn't like anyone to talk to her but her mother or myself, but she really doesn't respond to men. I know she trusted you once, so I hope you don't take offense."

"She's very different from what I remember," Jim said, sadness lacing his voice. It was that concern that drove Carter to continue speaking. Besides he needed to endear himself to the man. If he was going to kill Lucas, he'd have to have the Sheriff's trust. It was always easier to get to the brig that way.

"You know she was feeding Mira intel," Carter started and Jim nodded.

"It wasn't useful though, she wasn't hurting the colony, you blackmailed her by holding her mother hostage?"

Carter bristled. "Mira blackmailed her." Jim smiled and motioned for Carter to continue.

"She couldn't go back to Terra Nova, she knew you were on her trail, she figured Taylor would banish her. I asked her to stay. I convinced Mira. I knew the Phoenix Group was coming to destroy the colony and she would have been in more danger with Lucas in charge. He became obsessed with her when he was finishing the work to make the portal go both ways." He paused to brush the hair from her face and to glance at her mother making sure both women were fine. "Back then she just saw Lucas as a creepy irritation. He asked Mira a number of times to bring her to the colony when he was there. Mira doesn't care for Skye, but she hates Lucas more, so she made excuses. She didn't want me killing him then, anyways. At that point Mira thought we'd all get to go home with a big fat paycheck. Of course, you know that was a pipedream."

Jim nodded and Carter sighed. He was going to take Skye back with him. They'd have enough money to build a private island if he'd wanted it. But it was all just bullshit. The whole thing.

"So you blew up Hope Plaza and any chance of us leaving here, it was you, wasn't it?" Carter asked and Jim chuckled.

"That's one hell of a story for another day." Carter rolled his eyes at the older man's arrogance.

"The group, we almost fell apart after that. People left, chasing the Phoenix Group hoping for a way back home. We came with the idea that we'd return. Some people were very unhappy that that was no longer an option."

A chill ran through Skye's body and he grabbed for a blanket to cover her up. "You did tie Lucas up or cuff him or restrain him in some way, right? Bastard is slippery. I've been trying to kill him for the last six months but he's very good at hide and seek."

"He's secure in the other rover, it will beat us back to the colony and he'll be taken directly to the brig. I'm going to interrogate him myself."

"You said Taylor's been sick for three months?" Carter asked. "When was the last time he saw Lucas?" His story telling, even if he hadn't finished, seemed to have settled the Sheriff's distrust of him because he answered.

"About three and a half months ago," Shannon explained. "He ran into him at the falls and they had a scuffle. It wasn't more than a five-minute encounter. He couldn't have done anything to him, given anything to him, but he's been sick for months."

"What about Skye? You said six months?" Carter pressed his lips together. He didn't like relaying this part of the story and he worried that Skye might not really be asleep. She might be disturbed by it. After a few seconds of stroking her cheek, he decided she was really asleep. It took him a few minutes before he could actually answer the question.

"Lucas took her, six months ago, he just walked right into our room and took her. I wasn't there. I was out hunting. There'd been a carno baby boom and they were threatening the camp at night." He rubbed a hand over his face. "I tracked him down, well, I tracked her down, she'd somehow gotten away. To this day she hasn't told me how, but I found her hiding near the falls, too terrified to make it all the way back to camp. She's been different since then. She doesn't talk about it and I don't make her. Part of me doesn't want to know. But shortly after, she got sick. We thought it was because of the baby. It was just nausea, headaches, but she's never gotten better. I've seen pregnant women and I've never seen the symptoms this bad."

"Well, here we are," Jim said as they pulled into the gates of the colony and stopped in front of the hospital. "Hopefully we can get this sorted out and get everyone healthy again. I'm going to help get everyone set up in there," he nodded to the hospital, a woman with dark hair and a white coat stood anxiously on the front steps. "And if you want to, and you feel comfortable leaving her, and you promise not to shoot him or beat him again, I might let you help me interrogate Lucas."

Carter narrowed his eyes at the man as he exited the vehicle to come around the back. Maybe this guy wasn't smart. A sob story, true story, but sob story nonetheless was all it took for a mortal enemy to gain access and be welcomed into the colony? He was sure Taylor would not have done the same, but he had no problem taking advantage.

"I need to get her taken care of first," he said cautiously and Jim nodded understandingly as he helped the soldier put Skye's mother on a stretcher. The dark haired doctor was at the back of the rover looking over Deb before directing the men to take her into the building. Another stretcher showed up but Carter waved it off. "I'll carry her."

"I'm Dr. Shannon," the woman said with a smile. "I hear she's suffering from something similar to the Commander?"

"I don't know what Taylor is suffering from," Carter said shortly as he followed the woman into the building with Skye in his arms.

"Nausea, severe headaches, light sensitivity, lethargy." Dr. Shannon motioned for him to place Skye on a bed. He did so carefully and he noticed that Skye was awake, though her eyes were shut tightly. "Oh, light sensitivity for sure." The doctor caught on and dimmed the lights.

"It's alright, Princess," he whispered. She took his hand and gripped it like a vice. "You said Dr. Shannon was the best, so she's going to look at you." Skye nodded though she still hadn't opened her eyes and she wasn't letting go of his hand.

"Hello, Skye," Dr. Shannon greeted her. "We were very worried about you, I'm glad to have you back. Can you tell me how far along you are?"

He watched her bite the inside of her lip, she squeezed his hand and he looked to the doctor. "She's at 25 weeks."

"You have a medical background?" she asked Carter curiosity evident in her eyes.

"I was a paramedic, I made it through two years of medical school before I had to drop out."

"My," she said with a hand to her chest. "No wonder the Sixers have survived so long and so strongly. I'd always wondered how they survived without a doctor. Guess they've got one."

"We have basic medical training also, and Skye had been helping, until she got sick." He was skeptical of the praise, but filed it away.

"I'm going to run some tests, take blood, check her white blood cell count, I'd like to ultrasound the baby, make sure things are healthy there." The woman turned to Skye again. "Is that alright, sweetie?" Skye nodded and the doctor continued talking, "Shall I fill you in on the gossip while I do this? Not that it's any surprise, but Maddy and Mark are getting married. Jim is going crazy over it but I think they're just the cutest thing. She's always been my mature child, I'm sure you remember…"

Dr. Shannon yammered on but Carter quit listening. His concern was where the exits were, where he might pick up a weapon, he'd been here before, it looked a little different since then, but…

"I held a scalpel to your throat," he blurted interrupting the Doctor's chatter. She looked taken aback a moment before she gathered her wits.

"Yes, you did, are you planning on doing that again?" she said remarkably relaxed. Carter shook his head and she spoke again, "Good. It wasn't fun, let's not repeat." The woman smiled and he was once again confused at how trusting these people were.

"Sorry about that," he said sincerely as the doctor pushed Skye's shirt up over her belly. A screen appeared out of thin air and on it, Carter clearly saw the baby. He swallowed thickly and looked down at Skye. She'd opened her eyes and he saw tears leaking from them. "It's alright, everything looks fine, Skye. It's all normal. Look, I can see the sex, do you want to know?"

"You can see it? I think people on the other side of the hospital can see it," Skye joked as she wiped a tear from her cheek. He smiled widely. The only time she seemed to joke anymore was when it was in reference to the baby. She'd been too nervous to even open her eyes and speak to someone she knew and now she was joking and smiling. Hormones were weird shit. He wished he could blame everything about her sad behavior on hormones, but there was too much left to blame on Lucas and whatever he'd done to her.

"It's true, that's definitely a boy," Dr. Shannon added.

"I can't believe you aren't dancing right now, or demanding that I pay up, you did win the bet," Skye said before giggling. He laughed with her before bending over to kiss her. When he pulled away she sighed heavily and he turned to the doctor quickly.

"She's tired, this has been a rough day for her." Skye smiled thankfully at him and he kissed her forehead.

"You can go to sleep, sweetie," Dr. Shannon said gently. "Everything I'm going to do right now, you won't even feel it, and he can stay here with you, if that's what you want."

Skye nodded and Dr. Shannon handed Carter a blanket to drape over her. "I'm just going to speak with my husband a moment, and then I'll be right back."

Pulling up a chair he sat down and continued scanning the area. This was still enemy territory and if Taylor got wind that he was here, he might order the Sheriff to throw him or Skye in the brig. After a few minutes, Dr. Shannon was back at Skye's bedside, continuing her tests. Carter glanced down at Skye before standing up and walking out passed the confines of the bed and flimsy curtains that gave it privacy. Dr. Shannon followed him and he was grateful she'd done it.

"I need you to do one more test," he said anxiously. "I suppose your husband just filled you in on everything I told him?"

"He did," she said with a nod.

"Run a DNA test on the baby, you've got Lucas's DNA on file from the pilgrimage info, check it against that, please." He didn't look away from the woman as her brow furrowed.

"You think, what exactly do you think?" she asked shocked.

"We were careful. Babies don't belong in tree houses in jungles, and I don't care because it makes her happy. I don't think it's even crossed her mind, but he took her and I don't know what he did to her. He's demented and he's fixated on her. I've seen him look at her. It's disgusting."

"She really hasn't told you what happened?" Dr. Shannon asked. "I just thought you didn't want to tell Jim, I thought you didn't trust him, but if she's never told anyone, she could still be suffering from shock, repression, any number of things on top of the poison."

"So he wasn't bluffing, he made her sick?" Carter folded his arms across his chest and looked back to her sleeping peacefully on the bed.

"Skye is exhibiting similar symptoms and her white blood cell count is off the charts. Her body is fighting something off. I haven't actually narrowed it down to poison, it could be a virus he planted in them somehow, but they typically work faster, it leans more towards a steady dose of some kind of toxin in their blood. But I don't know how he's doing it. He hasn't had any contact with either of them in months."

"Wait, was Taylor injured, when he had his run in with Lucas, any injury? Skye had this," he held his hand to his neck to illustrate the spot, "She had a lump on her neck, near the lymph node. I couldn't tell what it was and it dissipated after a few days." He walked over to the bed. "Scan here, look for anything out of the ordinary, I thought it might just be a bruise, but for just a second, I felt it, the first day, it had a shape, like a capsule. I didn't think anything of it at the time because she wasn't sick yet. Like I said, I thought it was a bruise."

Elisabeth tapped on the floating screen quickly and then looked up disappointed. "Nothing. If there was something, it's gone." Carter let out a sigh and flopped back into the chair. "The good news is your mother-in-law will be healthy soon, probably before we figure out what's wrong with Skye."

Carter ignored the mother-in-law part, he wasn't married to Skye, that wasn't really high on their list of priorities, instead he looked to the doctor for more explanation.

"A vaccine was developed for Sincyllic fever just last year. I've sent word to one of the scientists and they're working on something for her. Should be finished by the morning." Dr. Shannon stepped back to speak to a nurse. "We're going to move Skye to a private room, that way you can stay with her in something more comfortable than that chair."

"Thank you," Carter said before looking around the floor confused. "Uh, I had a bag…"

"Oh, yes, it's with Deb, she's just over there," she said gesturing to a bed down the row. "You can grab it, I'll stay here with her."

He didn't want to leave her, but it was just 20 feet, he was confident he could run back if he needed to. Making his way to Deb's bed he spotted the bag. "Doing alright, Deb?" he asked quietly.

"The nurse said I'll be good as new soon, though I don't know if I believe that," she said with a small smile.

"That's what the doc told me, too. Take the good news, someone should be getting it."

"They're going to fix her, that's what they do here," she said grabbing his hand. He squeezed it.

"Yeah, I know. That's why we're here." He let go of her hand and lifted the bag. "Hey, I won the bet, it's a boy," he smiled wide and she returned it.

"Heaven help us all, another one of you, I'm not sure the world is ready for that," she teased and he chuckled.

"Like I'm the problem child, that kid of yours is nothing but trouble."

"You love every minute of the trouble," she replied before coughing. "Go be with her. She'll be scared if you're not there."

Carter often felt guilty for the fact that Deb Tate had been under his medical care for years and he'd never really gotten to know her, not until he and Skye had become involved. She was an intriguing person and he'd never noticed.

When he got back to the bed he was greeted by Jim Shannon again and Josh Shannon. He couldn't help the look of disgust that crossed his face. He'd never cared for the loser, even before Skye had assured him she was over the kid, back then, before that, their relationship had been about sex. Physical release, it wasn't until he'd gotten her to stay with him that the connection had grown. It wasn't until Lucas had taken Skye that Carter realized he loved her.

"Can I help you with something?" he ground out. Shannon looked perplexed a moment until he noticed where Carter's gaze landed.

"Josh just didn't believe me, he just wanted proof." Shannon said hands up defensively.

"She's sleeping, and your wife said they were going to move her, so if you'll excuse us," he said still glaring at the younger Shannon.

"Did you kidnap her? Is that how you got her to stay? Or was it just the knocking her up part that got her to stay?" Josh suddenly spoke. Carter took one step forward before Jim blocked his son.

"We'll be going," he said apologetically placing a firm hand on Carter's chest to stop him from hitting his son, Carter assumed. Josh scowled at Carter before turning to leave.

"Don't let him come back here," Carter spoke as the Sheriff turned to leave. "I know he's your kid, but he's an idiot and if he comes in and says those things again or he upsets her, I will not hesitate to hurt him."

Shannon didn't seem bothered by the threat, he took it seriously, but he didn't seem to find it disturbing. Perhaps the man understood Carter's intent in keeping Skye safe after everything she'd been through. Despite his strong desire not to, Carter had already placed a great deal of trust in Jim Shannon.

"Okay, we're moving her bed now," Dr. Shannon said, shaking Carter out of his thoughts. "You can follow us this way."

They passed an office, an exit, and another private room, the one that held the dear leader of Terra Nova. He caught a glimpse of the man as a nurse exited the room. He looked only a little better than Skye. Despite his hatred of the man, he was curious about his condition, but really only in the way it related to Skye getting better and what would happen when everyone was better and Taylor was back in charge.

The nurses and doctor settled Skye in and Carter looked around the room. There was a spare bed in the room, along with a private bathroom. He poked his head in the bathroom and couldn't help his smile at the real shower. This was as swanky as he had seen in years. Pulling the curtains back carefully to let as little light in, he checked the view, not for the aesthetics but for the exit options and the safety. God forbid Lucas got loose and came looking for her. He bolted the windows before turning back to Dr. Shannon.

"I'm going to go home for the evening. There's another doctor here, Dr. Preston, but I've told him he doesn't need to check on her unless something serious occurs. Nurse Ogawa will do the vital checks all night, since you said Skye doesn't respond well to men." He nodded and she continued. "I'll be back in the morning, I should have some test results back then. There will be food brought to you, but they've been told to leave it outside. Basically, the only person allowed in this room besides you, is Nurse Ogawa."

"Thank you," he said genuinely.

"You look like you could use some rest yourself, so make sure you get it, you aren't helping her running yourself ragged." She meant it to be motherly, but he scoffed.

"I've kept her as healthy as I could, I did everything in my power to make sure she didn't get worse, I'm tired of you people implying that isn't enough," he said tersely.

"No one is saying you didn't do your best, Carter," Dr. Shannon assured him. "Just, get some sleep." He wasn't comforted but he didn't think he'd help his case by more arguing.

When he woke the next morning, Carter was in the small hospital bed with Skye practically on top of him.

"Good morning," Dr. Shannon greeted a bit too cheerfully for his taste. He carefully extricated himself from the bed and Skye's limbs and walked to the bathroom. As he came out, he saw Dr. Shannon was still over Skye, checking vitals and taking more blood. Skye was awake, he could tell, but she was almost catatonic, it was typical for her, but the doctor seemed concerned by it. "Does this happen a lot?"

"Once or twice a week. She had nightmares last night, probably because of the change of environment. This might shock you but she's become scared of this place. Even before everything happened with Lucas she was sure everyone here was out to get her."

"So what you're telling me is her mental health has been deteriorating for a while," Dr. Shannon asked concerned.

"It wasn't anything to be worried about before Lucas. Just guilt as a result of her double life, I'm surprised she lasted as long as she did." Carter watched as Nurse Ogawa entered with the food trays. He took them from her and set them on a side table. Before he grabbed a piece of toast and took a bite.

"How are her eating habits?"

"She eats when she can, the nausea has been so bad some days that I can't get more in her than some broth or juice, and that's with prodding. Dehydration has been a serious issue," he explained.

"Well, we've got an IV hooked up now so it shouldn't be, but if she won't eat we'll have to add something to it more," she commented before gesturing for Carter to follow her outside. He put the toast back on the plate and ran his calloused fingers over Skye's hand before he left.

"There is some good news," Dr. Shannon started. "The DNA results, they don't match Taylor's, I took the liberty of pulling yours and indeed they match."

He closed his eyes and released a long breath. A weight that'd been sitting on his chest for six months lifted. "Thank you," he said and she nodded in reply.

"There's something else I'd like to discuss," she said cautiously. "It's very difficult for me to separate the symptoms of whatever is making her physically ill from the things that have happened to her that might be physically affecting her because of her emotional state." Carter stared at her confused. The doctor looked back to the room and then at her hands before looking back at him. "I'd like to try and talk to her about what happened."

"I don't think that's a good idea," he said slowly.

"Listen, I know you have her best interests at heart, but look at it this way, we need to see what's wrong with her-" Carter cut her off.

"If your husband would let me torture that bastard in the brig I could find out what's wrong with her," he said suddenly menacing. Once again, he was impressed by the doc because she didn't back down or even flinch.

"She's going to have a baby in less than four months. Even if we've cured what's making her physically ill, she'll need to be in better mental health to handle the rigors of having a child. She's a strong young woman, I'm not saying she isn't, but she's at a greater risk for post partum depression and if you two go back to the Sixer camp, like you said, babies and tree houses don't really mix well, I'm concerned for both her and your son."

Carter pulled on his chin while looking back at the closed door of Skye's room. He was afraid of what happened to her, he didn't really want to know. But those cowardly feelings would have to be pushed aside, because no matter how much he wanted to disagree with the doctor, she'd made valid points.

"Fine," he ground out. "But it's got to be you that talks to her. And unless she says so, her mother or I need to be with her. I don't know what's going to happen when she starts talking, _if _she'll talk to you."

"I'm not sure you're putting enough faith in her, I think she needs to talk about it, I think it's going to help her get better," the woman said firmly before going back into the room. Carter shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck before following her.

"Do you feel up to a shower, sweetie," he heard Dr. Shannon ask Skye as he walked in. "I'm sure it will make you feel a bit better, then you can have some breakfast."

Skye had snapped out of her mood and he smiled at her. "It's a nice shower, there's even hot water, just like you used to whine about," he teased her and she smiled at him.

"Help me up and I'm going to run out the hot water in there," she told him happily with an outstretched arm. "Thank you, Dr. Shannon."

"You're very welcome, I'll be back later to check on you, I'm going to go see how your mom is doing right now," the doctor said before excusing herself.

Carter helped Skye up out of bed and led her to the shower. "You could join me, you know," she said with a smirk and he couldn't help the way his body reacted.

"Alright," he said as he turned the water on and helped her out of her clothes, kissing his way down her neck. She raked her hands over his chest as she pushed his shirt off his shoulders and kissed every scar that lined his muscles. "You're certainly feeling better today," he said as she reached down and gripped him.

"I miss this," she said out of breath from his kisses. "I hate that I don't have the energy to do it more."

"Princess, you're going to get better," he replied as they stepped into the shower. The warm water rushed over them and Skye sighed contently. The two things she constantly complained about were the lack of air conditioning and the lack of hot water. Carter had missed those things, too, but he'd had a purpose, a cause, Skye was a victim of circumstance and he didn't begrudge her complaints. Of course, he didn't let the whining go without a fair amount of teasing.

All other thoughts were forgotten as Skye washed her hair. Carter took his own time scrubbing the muck and sweat from his own body but his eyes never left her body. It had changed so much. She'd lost weight in her arms and even her thighs, but her face and belly were rounder, her normally small breasts were larger. The way her eyes closed as she worked the shampoo through her hair enticed him, but the shower seemed the wrong place to attempt anything. Instead he just watched, no matter her shape right now, he found her sexy and the view he had wasn't one he'd give up.

True to her words, she stayed under the spray until the water started to go cold.

"That's pretty impressive," he said as he turned off the water and reached for a towel. "Those solar panels are supposed to heat 200 gallons, you realize how much water you just wasted?"

"Like you weren't standing in there with me the whole time," she said with a roll of her eyes as he ran the towel over her body. "I didn't forget you know…" she said with raised eyebrows.

"Neither did I," he said lifting her up easily, he took two steps and placed her on the bathroom counter. She flushed and grabbed his face, kissing him roughly as he moved to stand between her legs. His hands pulled her waist to the edge of the counter, then one hand moved to her center, a flick over her clit and she threw her head back. He chuckled and kissed his way down the column of her throat and across her collarbones while running his other hand from her wet hair, down her neck and stopping to tease her nipple with a calloused finger.

She moaned his name and he replaced his hand with his length and thrust into her. Skye cried out and he moved to kiss her to keep her quiet. He didn't expect the walls in this hospital to be soundproof by any means and he didn't want anyone interrupting them. With his hands holding her legs around his waist he continued to push into her and she met every move. The feel of her strangling him was too much so he slowed his pace and moved his lips to her breasts while she gripped his wet hair and panted. Swirling his tongue around her nipple she moaned again and he was reminded that her breasts were so much more sensitive, along with being fuller.

As she locked her feet together around his back, he moved one hand to palm the breast he wasn't licking and the other to her clit. Circling his finger there had her crying out again.

"Shhh, someone is going to come in and stop all this fun if you're too loud, Princess," he whispered, his tongue teasing the shell of her ear, licking the last drops of water from the shower. Skye moaned low and he decided it was probably time to finish this. As much as he would have loved to continue, the chances of someone walking in and the fact that she would be worn out soon had him pushing into her faster and speeding up his finger against her clit.

He felt her tighten around him over and over again, causing him to pound into her even faster. Closing his eyes he thrust once more, spent and tingling. With ragged breath he leaned against her shoulder while she started to giggle.

"What is so funny?" he asked still catching his breath and feeling mocked.

"It's maybe been too long since we've done that because I'm downright giddy," she said in between giggles. "I'm not laughing at you, I promise."

Carter lifted his head from her shoulder and kissed her softly. "We need to get dressed or people are going to talk."

"Oh, you care what people think?" she said with a knowing look. "This is new information, you never have before, and it's not like people around here don't know how we got here," she emphasized the last word by rubbing her hand over her stomach. He bent down and kissed her belly before lifting her off the counter.

"I think that Dr. Shannon might tell us we can't fuck," he said handing her a clean nightgown and grabbing for his own clean clothes. "I'm okay with people talking. I just want to be able to fuck you if you're up to it." Skye rolled her eyes but she couldn't hide the small smile on her face.

"You're going to sleep the rest of the day now, aren't you?" Carter asked with a grin as he helped her back into bed. She scoffed.

"Why does anyone have children?" she said with two hands on her belly. "This is just awful." He placed a hand over hers and felt the baby move.

"I'm pretty sure most women aren't being poisoned while pregnant, you could do this all over again and probably be happy as a clam and glow and nest and do all that other shit women talk about."

"I know you aren't talking about repeating this event." Skye looked at him amused.

"Whoa there, let's see how this goes," he said with a frown "I mean, it's been years since there were any babies in camp and I don't even know how this is going to go, I don't…"

"Don't get your panties in a twist," she teased. "I'm messing with you."

"It's not funny," But his frown softened.

"Actually, it's hilarious."

"You need to get better first," he said before bending over and placing a kiss to her hair.

"Did you enjoy your shower?" Dr. Shannon asked as she opened the door. Skye nodded and smiled but the doctor was smiling too widely. Carter figured maybe he hadn't kept Skye quiet enough. "Great. Do you mind if Maddy comes in to speak with you?" He immediately tensed but Skye seemed calm. "Jim wants to speak with you, Carter, I think he's got a field trip planned and I'm going, too. I just thought Maddy would be nice company for Skye while you're out."

"That's fine," Skye said warmly. Apparently today was a good day. He hated to miss those as they were rare, but he hoped that Shannon was going to be interrogating Lucas.

"I can stay here with you, if you need me to," he asked concerned but Skye swatted him away.

"I'm fine, might be fun to talk to Maddy," Skye said more animated than he'd seen her in the last month. "Well, you've never talked to Maddy. Basically it's listening. The girl can talk a mile a minute." He smiled, just happy to see her smiling. But something gnawed at his gut. She'd been in Terra Nova less than 24 hours and she was already better. Maybe he'd made a mistake by keeping her hidden away in the Sixer camp. Maybe he never should have asked her to stay to begin with.

"Okay, I'm going to go, then, I'll be back soon," he said before brushing a quick kiss across her forehead.

He nodded at a nervous but smiling girl he assumed to be Maddy Shannon and left the room to find Jim Shannon and his wife talking. "Is this the part where you let me beat the shit out of Lucas? Because I'm still pretty sure that's the best way to get to the bottom of this little mystery."

Jim gave him a sympathetic glance before turning to his wife. "Actually, today is the day Elisabeth makes sure you didn't harm him beyond recovery."

"You're not going to get an apology out of me." Carter didn't break eye contact with the Sheriff.

"He's well enough for us to talk to him at least, and like I said, if you'll keep your hands to yourself, you're welcome to come," Jim explained. "But Elisabeth is going to do a full medical exam, yesterday we just had some staff clean him up."

"Fine, let's get this over with."

The brig was a short walk from the hospital, but word must have gotten out about Skye being back. Despite his presence with the Sheriff, people stared and whispered as he passed. To distract himself from the onlookers he figured he'd do a little intel gathering himself.

"How many people live in the colony now?" he asked Jim.

"About a thousand," he said but Elisabeth huffed.

"There are 1017, we had quite the baby boom immediately after we retook the colony. And there are currently eight women pregnant expecting to deliver before the end of the year, that's including Skye."

Carter raised his eyebrows and let just a touch of a smile show as the doctor continued. "You should see the day care, they can't get enough staff in there. After Leah and Sam Marcos, I've always wondered about the children with the Sixers."

"Not much to wonder about," he said vaguely as possible. They did have children with them and Carter never liked it. He didn't think it was smart, they were in living in the jungle, fighting daily to survive. Children didn't deserve to be stuck in that situation. But he didn't really have a choice now. And he wasn't upset about the baby, the way that the pregnancy seemed to tether Skye to her old personality made him more than thankful for it, but he did worry. When they went back, or as the doctor had snuck in this morning, _if_ they went back, he wasn't sure how they'd adjust to having a kid.

As they entered the brig, Carter looked about, again checking for exits and glaring at the soldiers on duty. Shannon spoke easily to one, Carter recognized him and as he eavesdropped he realized this must be the man that their daughter was going to marry. He looked like a straight-laced tight ass, probably never broken a rule in his life. The guy gave Carter a hard look before opening the door that led to the cell.

Seeing Lucas again, Carter could hardly control the rage that pumped through his veins. He crossed his arms over his chest to restrain himself. The man was purple and yellowing all over. His face was covered in cuts, his nose looked crooked, and his lip was still swollen. Carter hung back, watching as the doctor started checking him over thoroughly. Lucas sat, his face unchanging as she prodded bones that Carter knew were broken.

"Kill anyone lately?" The Sheriff paced, but Lucas didn't reply, just looked straight ahead. For a moment, Carter wondered if it'd actually happened, if the man had come unhinged for good. But he seemed to notice Carter in the back of the room and sneered at him.

"How's Bucket?"

It took everything he had to not push Dr. Shannon out of the way and strangle the man with his bare hands. But he knew that he was being baited and he wasn't going to rise. He bit the inside of his cheek.

"Why are they sick, Lucas?" the Sheriff asked as Dr. Shannon continued her exam. She had a plex pad and a portable scanner like the ones that magically appeared in the hospital, it made the exam go much quicker than Carter would have thought. She checked Lucas' ribs again by hand again, and he couldn't help but think maybe the doc was torturing him a little. He let a smile ghost over his lips at the thought.

"I don't know what's wrong with my father," he lied. "But if you'll let me go and give me Skye, I can make her better."

"Bullshit," Carter said nonchalantly. Lucas narrowed his eyes and Carter stayed firm, with a slight smile. "I get why you want to kill your dad, he's kind of a bastard, but it clearly runs in the family. But Skye, if you love her," he paused to swallow the bile that threatened to rise, "then why kill her? Where I come from, we don't kill people we love."

Lucas didn't speak. He just sat. Staring. It was unnerving. Dr. Shannon stood, took her husband's arm and guided him back to where Carter was standing. "I thought you should know," she whispered as they huddled around her. "He has a scar, it's about six months old. It's a wonder he survived. Someone cut into his femoral artery."

Carter tried not to cheer. "Good girl," he said proudly. Jim raised his eyebrows and Elisabeth shook her head.

"And he's, he's missing a testicle." At that, Carter couldn't help the humorless laugh that escaped. "I'm concerned with those kind of injuries, I think it's safe to assume that he at least attempted to assault her sexually."

He tensed again, both Shannons looked his way as though he needed to be restrained. "I'm not a ticking time bomb," he said through gritted teeth. "But when we get the information we need, I will kill that man. Throw me in here, banish me, shoot me, I don't care, I will kill him."

"I think maybe you need to leave," the Sheriff said slowly but Carter was angry now.

"No," he said firmly.

"In your state, you're not going to help and I think he's taunting you. He sees you as a romantic roadblock. It's sick and demented and it's not going to help me right now. If I want to use her against him, I'll call you, but you should go back and sit with Skye. Maybe get her to talk about what happened to her. Maybe she can remember if he did anything out of the ordinary." Carter scoffed.

"Because everything Lucas does is ordinary." He took a moment to glance back at the bastard and shook his head. "Fine, but if you can't get the answers, maybe you'll see that my way is the only way."

With one more glare at Lucas, Carter turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

When he got back to the hospital, he sat in a chair, and listened as Maddy talked to Skye. She hadn't been exaggerating. Carter had never heard a person talk so much as Maddy Shannon did. After 45 minutes on the cycles of some flower that only bloomed for 24 hours, Maddy finally ran out of steam. Although, Carter figured it had more to do with the straight-laced soldier from the brig hanging around outside the room than her getting bored with conversation.

"So, where did you go?" Skye asked when they were alone again. She was on her side and scooted over in the small bed, she pat the mattress and he moved to lay beside her.

"Out," he said avoiding the truth. Skye raised her eyebrows, she knew he was blowing her off. "What about you? Did you have fun listening to that chatter box go on for hours?"

"She's sweet. I'd forgotten." She sighed heavily. "I've forgotten a lot. I wonder how many people hate me, I mean, Maddy couldn't hurt a fly, but I bet her boyfriend, well, fiancé, I bet he still hates me. He was in charge of one of the last convoy's you raided before…"

Carter tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and let his hand linger on her cheek a minute. "He looked like a guy that needed a little adventure in his life, I'm sure he's long forgotten it." It was a lie, Carter wouldn't forget, he assumed that man hadn't either. He moved his hand to rub her arm lightly.

"Where did you go today?" she repeated the question. He closed his eyes a moment and sighed.

"I saw Lucas." Skye didn't seem affected by the news. She'd had a good day so he decided to broach the subject as both Shannons had suggested. "Dr. Shannon gave him a full medical exam."

"How many bones did you break?" she asked without emotion.

"I didn't ask, but now I'm realizing I should have, I know at least 3 of his ribs, and by the swollen look of his nose, well, he won't be winning any beauty contests." The corner of his mouth lifted in a half smile, she remained blank. He cleared his throat, steeling himself to continue. "Doc said she found a scar from six months ago, someone stabbed him in the femoral artery." Her eyes never left his. He saw her tongue dart out before she spoke.

"Something like that should kill someone." Still she was cold and distant.

"It should." He wondered if maybe she'd gone within herself, as she'd done this morning. But he continued anyways, "Someone also cut off one of his balls."

Her eyes flickered with something, he wasn't sure what but she spoke in an eerie tone, one that would give shivers to a person that didn't understand the history. "The knife was too dull to cut through his dick."

Carter reached for her and she nestled into his chest quickly. He held on to her so tight it might hurt, but she didn't say so and he didn't ask. Skye didn't cry she just stayed there, her arms around his chest. He was sure she could hear his heart pound and he wished again that Jim Shannon would just let him kill that psychotic fucker.

They stayed like that for most of the afternoon, eventually both falling asleep. When Carter woke, it was because something was very softly kicking him in the stomach. Scrubbing the sleep from his eyes he realized the motion was coming from Skye's belly and he cursed. "Kid, you're going to wake her up and I'm not going to be happy about that," he whispered and was startled when he heard someone laugh.

"Josh was the worst, I swear that kid bruised _my_ ribs in utero," Jim Shannon said with a chuckle from his place, leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Can I help you?" Carter asked curtly getting up from the bed to stand.

"I need to know where you first found Lucas yesterday," he asked seriously, any hint of humor gone. "If there was a poison or a chemical compound, or even a virus, I need to find it and wherever Lucas was hanging out seems like the best place to search."

"It wasn't anywhere special, he was near the quarry, just out in the middle of the jungle," Carter said scrubbing a hand over his face. "If he has a hold up somewhere, it wasn't anywhere I could see."

"I'm going with a group tomorrow to search the area."

"I told you," Carter said frustrated. "I've been looking for Lucas since he took Skye, he's been on the move, if there's evidence that will help us figure out what he's done, it's not just in a cave somewhere. Son of a bitch is paranoid, he probably destroyed or buried it, we're better off just getting him to tell us what he did."

"You'll kill him before you get any information from him," Shannon said bluntly. "Not that you'd do it on purpose, but you're angry, validly so, but you can't help her if you kill him."

"I think she'd rather die sick than know that he is still alive, I know if I were in her place, that's what I'd want," he said seriously.

"She tried to kill him, maybe you've had a little too much influence on her." Jim fixed him with a cold look. Carter raised his brows.

"You think it was me?" Carter growled. "Because I've known Skye longer than you, she worked for Mira for years before you came through the portal, she's a capable young woman and she got that way without my help. Taylor's the one that taught her how to shoot a gun and she can run faster than Nyko if she needs to. Hard work doesn't scare her nor does she shy from it. Before she was 16 years old she lost one parent and then practically lost the other. She became that way independent of me. When she cut into his leg, she meant to kill him and she should have. No one should judge her for that. You heard your wife, he tried to rape her, we don't know, he might have succeeded."

Jim looked at Skye, still sleeping on the bed and then glanced back to Carter. "I'm trying to save more than her, I have to think about more than her. If Taylor dies, this colony will be crippled. I need Lucas alive and I need to know what he knows, I need your word that you won't attempt to kill him while I'm gone tomorrow."

"He deserves to die."

"I know that, but that doesn't make it right." Shannon acted like that was supposed to change his mind.

"Good thing I don't play for the side of good and light," Carter said smartly. The Sheriff tilted his head.

"I think you're wrong, I think you do want to do what's right, it's why you're so desperate to protect her."

"For Christ's sake, the last thing I want to do is get into a philosophical conversation about good and evil and right and wrong," Carter said with a huff. "I won't break into the brig and kill him while you're gone. Just stop talking me to death." He shook his head and was grateful to see the nurse come in to check on Skye.

"Good enough," Jim said pushing off the wall and leaving the room.

Carter took a deep breath and walked back over to the bed. "Everything is looking stable," Nurse Ogawa told him as he hovered behind her watching the screens.

"She's had such a good day I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop," he replied. The nurse gave him a sympathetic smile and walked towards the door where she was handed a tray of food.

"She didn't eat much lunch, if you can, get her to eat dinner, otherwise we'll have to get her nutrients intravenously." Carter nodded as he took the tray.

"Skye," Carter whispered while brushing her hair back. "Princess, are you hungry?" She opened her eyes slowly and stretched her arms above her lazily.

"It's weird, I am starving," she said perplexed. "Not that I'm complaining, it's just different, don't you think?"

"Yeah," he agreed and set the tray in front of her on a table for the bed. Skye ate most of the food before turning to him, he was sitting in the chair just watching her eat.

"Did you want some of this?" she asked with a mouth half full. He laughed at her as he shook his head.

"You don't have to share, there's another tray coming for me, they just wanted to make sure you ate. Slow down, though, if it all comes up again you want it to be chewed thoroughly. It won't hurt so much that way." Skye rolled her eyes and he shrugged. "That's just my professional opinion, but what do I know?"

"Smart ass," she said. "How's my mom?"

"She's looking better, they think she'll be out of here before you, though, I don't know what they'll do with her, I guess maybe find her a place to stay?"

"It's going to be so strange to have her healthy, she's been sick for ages," she said pensively. "We won't have to take care of her anymore."

"Good, she can be on grandma duty," he said smiling, until he saw the color drain from Skye's face. He grabbed for the nearest trashcan, just in time, he got it under her and she heaved.

The other shoe had dropped. There was blood in the vomit.

He pulled her hair back and watched as tears formed in her eyes from the painful shaking of her body as it forced the food back up. A beeping noise sounded from the machine monitoring her and in seconds Dr. Shannon and another nurse were running into the room.

"What happened?" the doctor asked urgently.

"She was just eating, I told her to slow down, but I don't think that's it, there's blood in the bile," he answered quickly. Dr. Shannon's brow furrowed. "What?"

"Is that a new symptom? Taylor's never experienced it, something is different."

"It's new." He nodded and tried to rub Skye's back, but she shook again and swatted his hand away, or he thought she swatted it away but instead she placed his hand on her stomach, it felt rock hard. "The beeping on the monitor, it's the baby isn't it?"

"She's having some contractions, nothing too serious yet, but we need to stop the vomiting." She pushed some kind of liquid into the IV and stood back a moment. Carter held his breath, hand still on Skye's side, desperately waiting for the contraction to pass and for the puking to stop.

Her body stopped shaking and she lifted her head enough to move it against his shoulder, that's when she started sobbing. He wrapped an arm around her and took a glass of water that the nurse offered.

The door opened and a gaggle of people stood in the hall watching horrified. Josh Shannon at the front of the pack, glaring. "Have we ruled out that maybe this guy is the one making her sick?"

"I swear to God I will kill you if you don't get the fuck out," Carter said in his best menacing tone. Josh stood challengingly before his mother moved to close the door.

"I'm sorry, a few of her friends wanted to come in, I was in the middle of telling them that I needed to check in here first when the alarms sounded."

Skye lifted her head and took a sip of the water. "You can send them in, I don't want to be rude."

"Are you shitting me?" he said shocked. "Your belly is still tighter than my abs and all those people are going to do is make you feel guilty or ask you a hundred questions about why you didn't come back here. Don't let your manners overrule your health, Skye."

"I can decide that for myself," she shot back and Carter stared at her confused.

"Fine," he said letting go of her and taking a step back. He watched her lull to one side before he caught her against his chest again. "You want me to prop you up or you think you got this one all by yourself?"

"Damn it," she said defeated. "I just want to go to sleep. Can they come back tomorrow? And one at a time, Tasha tomorrow, maybe Hunter the next day," she trailed off and Carter was relieved that she didn't mention Josh. "That was Hunter and Tasha behind Josh, right? Or did I imagine that people actually wanted to see me?"

"No, that was them, and I think your plan of one at a time, once a day is a great idea," Dr. Shannon said finally adding her two cents. Carter helped Skye back into the bed while the doctor tapped on the floating screen checking her vitals. "Alright, everything is looking stable, I'm going to go tell the kids they can come back tomorrow."

Carter was awakened by a soft knock at the door. He untangled himself from Skye's limbs and cursed whoever was actually bothering to knock in the middle of the night. The nurses just came in to check Skye's vitals, they were quiet and Carter or Skye were hardly disturbed when they did their work. On the other side of the door stood a solider.

"Is there a reason you're waking me up in the middle of the night, Straight-laced?" Carter asked the solider he remembered from the brig.

"Straight-laced?" the soldier asked confused.

"Yeah, you look like a straight laced tight ass."

"You look like an asshole," Reynolds retorted.

"I cultivate that," Carter answered nonplussed. "Did you want to exchange insults all night or were you going to get to the point before the sun rises?"

Reynolds glared a moment before speaking again, "Commander Taylor would like to see you."

"In the middle of the night?" Carter didn't particularly relish the idea of seeing the man and he certainly didn't want to have to put a shirt on at the moment.

"The Commander is sick, like Skye, remember? He keeps odd hours, so yes, he wants to see you right now," the soldier remarked shortly.

"Fine," Carter said with a huff. He turned to check on Skye and thought about grabbing a shirt, but decided against it. The last thing he felt like doing at 2 a.m. was being respectful. He'd never liked the man, even when he'd first come through the portal years ago, and he didn't imagine he'd start anytime soon.

Reynolds led him to the next room and opened the door. He poked his head in and said a few words to the Commander and then motioned for Carter to enter before he shut the door behind him. The room mirrored Skye's, but this one looked more lived in. There were papers scattered all over the table, a couple of plexes, a makeshift desk where it looked like Taylor had tried to continue running the colony from the room, but Carter knew that Jim Shannon had been doing all the real work. Did he just humor Taylor? If Skye was any indication, Taylor couldn't be productive more than two or three hours a day and by productive, he really meant awake.

"Ah, Carter, have a seat," the older man offered but Carter shook his head.

"I'd rather not be here that long," he replied.

"Suit yourself," Taylor answered, if he was ruffled by Carter's harshness, he didn't show it.

"The Sheriff filled me in on everything that's happened," Taylor stopped and waited for Carter to say something, but he just stood. "I appreciate that you didn't kill my son, and that you brought Skye here, I think Dr. Shannon can help her."

Again, Carter didn't respond. He didn't think one was necessary and he saw the lack of conversation was grating on Taylor.

"I'm not upset with her," Taylor said after a minute of silence. "It was a long time ago and I know she was doing what she thought she had to do." Still, Carter stood still and didn't offer any remarks, this time because he didn't know what to say. He couldn't help the nagging feeling that he'd been wrong a year ago when he asked Skye to stay with him. It was becoming painfully clear that she wouldn't have been thrown in the brig. The only thing calming that unsteadiness was that Lucas had been here in charge for a short while. Who knows what he would have done to Skye?

"The two of you are welcome to stay." Taylor didn't take his eyes off Carter, probably hoping to see if the offer shocked him, but Carter made sure his face was impassive. "We could always use the medical help, and we need the man power. The colony would welcome back the rest of the Sixers, too, if they wanted to return peacefully. With the portal destroyed, we need to boost our population and really, what's stopping Mira? If she wants to hate me just because, I suppose that's valid, but wouldn't we all be better off if he worked together?"

Carter waited a moment before responding. He'd wondered himself why they hadn't come back to Terra Nova. Without a cause, with the loss of incentive, besides their hate of Taylor's dictatorship, there wasn't much reason for them to be hanging around in tree houses instead of air-conditioned homes.

"I'll pass the word on next time I run into Mira," he said dryly. Both men stared at each other, waiting for something, Carter wasn't sure what, but he didn't look away.

"I should apologize for Lucas' behavior." Of all the things Carter could have imagined conversing about with Taylor, this was not on the list. No amount of apologies or discussion could make it right or better, but he certainly didn't expect regret from the man over his deranged son.

"Like I said, I've been filled in on everything that happened to Skye and I can understand your righteous desire to kill him, but I appreciate that you haven't. The likelihood that Doc could figure out how to make me well without him, it's not high."

"Once Skye is healthy, I will kill him," Carter said without hesitation. "He doesn't deserve to live another day after what he's done."

"I both agree and disagree with you, but that's the complicated position of a father, you'll learn soon that it's not all black and white with your children," Taylor said absently rubbing at his beard.

"Think I'll pass on taking parenting tips from you," Carter said with a raised brow. "Are we done?"

Taylor nodded and Carter turned to leave, but as he reached for the doorknob Taylor spoke again. "I can marry the two of you so you can make an honest woman out of her."

Carter rolled his eyes and didn't bother turning around. "Don't think a ceremony with some words will help her recover from any of the hell she's been through. I didn't think you were capable of such naïve thoughts, guess you learn something new everyday."

He mock saluted Reynolds on his way back to his room and received a finger in return from the soldier. He laughed at that and found the gesture actually made him like the kid a little.

Skye was sprawled out in the small hospital bed so Carter made himself comfortable on the spare bed and tried to go back to sleep. The problem was two people had now suggested it was better for Skye to stay in Terra Nova than for her to return with him to the camp. Taylor hadn't necessarily said it, but Carter could read between the lines. And for the man to offer them a place, and more, to offer all the Sixers a place, despite the fact that their mission had been to kill Taylor and take the colony, the man was either very well acquainted with his own mortality at the moment or he was on some good medication.

But could Carter do it? Could he live in this colony and work under the restraints and rules? Of course, it would be easier to raise a child in Terra Nova than in the jungle. They'd have the resources, the safety of the gates, and even if Skye didn't want to stay, he was sure Deb would and he wasn't ready to cut her off from her own grandchild. He liked her too much for that.

It came down to his loyalties, as well. He had no love for Taylor, but since he and Skye had become involved, Mira had been less inclined to include him the way she had before. At first it bothered him, he still held the position of her first, but as Skye's health deteriorated and he, himself became more focused on finding Lucas, it wasn't important to him anymore. He really didn't care what Mira did. With that bundle of thoughts, he drifted into an uneasy, and not at all restful sleep.

It was morning, he knew this because he'd heard the shift change of the nurses and heard Dr. Shannon come in and help Skye into and out of the shower. After his late night pow wow with Taylor, Carter wasn't ready to get up, he figured he could just lie about for a while and try to relax. He knew that the Sheriff was out today and he had given his word he wouldn't try to interfere with Lucas while he was gone, but he also assumed there'd be a guard at the most or a nosy Dr. Shannon at the least keeping tabs on him today.

"Looks like Tasha's here, are you ready for me to let her in," he heard Dr. Shannon tell Skye. She must have agreed because the next thing he heard was a high-pitched squeal and Skye shushing her.

"Sorry," he heard Tasha say quieter. "But it's already eight, does he normally sleep all day?"

"He was up in the middle of the night, I don't know what for, but I'm sure he had a good reason," Skye defended him. It was quiet for a moment and then Skye spoke again, "I love your hair, it's so different…I'm probably pretty different, too. Fat, especially."

"Oh please, you're having a baby and fat isn't ever a word I would associate with you. I mean, Millie Grant, sure, that poor thing always look like a sausage in too tight casing, but you look great."

"Except for the part where my skin looks awful because I can't eat anything without throwing it all up again, or how I hardly get out anymore because I'm so tired all the time. Pretty much my life sucks." He heard her sniffle and hated that she felt that way but he wasn't surprised and there really wasn't anything he could do about it at the moment.

"Hey, it's not all bad, surely, I mean, he's not bad to look at," Tasha said comfortingly.

"No, he's not." Carter was going to stay nice and quiet for this part, but they moved on quickly.

"I was worried about you," Tasha said softly. "Obviously, but I just remember there was this awful storm, maybe a month after you'd left, and I thought you were out in the jungle somewhere, trying not to get sick and like, dying in a tree because you froze to death or something."

Carter remembered the storm. He remembered how they'd spent most of the day in bed naked and only came up for air when a chunk the size of a plex was ripped from the ceiling. The next day he'd found her on top of the hut with tools.

"_What are you doing up there?" he hollered from the ledge below, appreciating the view of her ass. "The storm was bad enough to rip the roof, it might have weakened it, too. I don't need you falling through it and making a Skye shaped hole."_

"_That would be a sky light and it would add value to your home, sir," she said cheekily. _

"_Aw, aren't you clever?" he said patronizingly. _

"_Yes, I am." She didn't look at him, she just continued hammering. "That's why I'm fixing the roof. I have all the supplies, I've already patched the small holes that were in my mom's room, I'm just finishing up here, if you looked inside you'd see that." _

"_If you're doing such a great job how come you just nailed your shirt to the roof?" he asked noticing the long blouse tail that was stuck to the thatching. _

"_I did no such…Shit," she groaned. "This is my favorite shirt." _

"_Shouldn't have gotten distracted talking to me, I guess," he said with a smirk as he climbed halfway up the ladder and reached for her foot. She tried to kick him but he already had a solid hold on her ankle. "Just come down and you can finish it after."_

"_After what?" she asked irritated. He gave her ankle a swift tug and she squeaked as the momentum had her sliding down the roof towards him. He caught her waist and kissed what was now just a bra-clad chest, the quick movement having ripped the nailed down blouse from her chest. "Oh come on, I was almost done," she whined, but it soon turned to a moan as he sucked her nipple through her bra. _

"I didn't die." She laughed and he figured she must have been remembering the storm, too. "Safe and sound, I was inside, the whole time."

"With him?" Tasha asked.

"Yes, with him."

"You should hear some of the things Josh has been saying." He heard Skye sigh heavily and if he didn't want to hear the things that might follow, he would have gotten up and suggested maybe Tasha had visited long enough. Carter didn't want Skye to be upset because of anything that ass wipe said.

"I'd rather not hear anything he's said, thank you," Skye said sounding exasperated. "It's really none of his business."

"Can I hear the business?" Tasha sounded curious. "I mean, geez, I look at him, he's got to be good in bed, all the hard muscles and bad boy image, damn, I'm getting bothered just looking at him." Carter almost puffed up with pride then.

"Eh, he's alright," he heard Skye say as though she were bored. "I've had better."

"Bullshit," he said offended without opening his eyes.

"I knew you were awake," she said with a scoff. He opened his eyes and shook his head.

"Like that's a reason to lie to your friend," he argued. "I'm fantastic."

Skye rolled her eyes and Tasha looked him up and down unabashed. "I'll bet you are."

"Nice to meet you," he said with a smug smile as he got up and grabbed a shirt. He heard Tasha whimper as he pulled the shirt over his head. "I'm going to go check on your mom." He kissed Skye fully, partly because he wanted to, partly for Tasha's benefit. When he pulled away Skye rolled her eyes again and smacked his arm.

"Jackass."

"Love you, too, Princess," he whispered before he turned to leave.

Sure enough, the minute he exited the room, Dr. Shannon was on his tail. "Oh, good morning, uh, where are you headed?"

Carter sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Just thought I'd check on Deb and give Skye a few minutes for girl talk, don't worry, I'm not armed. I'm not going to break into any cells. I gave your husband my word."

"That's not what I was…" she tried before a nurse called for her. "Okay, yes, that's what I was doing, Jim was a bit worried, but I don't have time to keep an eye on you. We're incredibly busy this morning. Don't kill anyone, alright?"

"Right," he said before she ran off in the direction of a hollering patient. He glanced towards the bed that Deb normally occupied and noticed that she wasn't in it. What he did see were the masses of people that seemed to be flooding the hospital. He grabbed a passing nurse he recognized. "What's going on?"

"What isn't going on?" she sighed frustrated. "The school had an outbreak of conjunctivitis, which isn't that disturbing except every parent in the colony it seems is sure that their child needs immediate attention. It's vaccination day for Section 3 because they're all heading OTG tomorrow and on top of that, there was a small kitchen fire at the mess hall and we've got six people severely burned and 10 with minor burns."

"Where's Deb Tate?" he asked.

"She went for a walk, she's come far enough in her treatment that the doctor approved her to have some outside time, she wasn't really fond of all the commotion going on in here," the nurse explained and then looked towards a screaming child who seemed to have some kind of issue with snot. The sight made Carter recoil. Snot bubbles were disgusting. "Where do you need the help most?"

"What are you going to do?" she asked skeptically. He rolled his eyes.

"Who's in charge of the vaccinations?" The nurse pointed to a corner of the building where a large group of soldiers milled about.

"It was supposed to be Dr. Greer, but he's gone to help Dr. Shannon with the burns."

"You've got doctors doing vaccinations? That's kid stuff," he said with a shake of his head. "If anyone asks, that's where I'll be. It'll be fun." The nurse shrugged and headed off towards the snot bubbles kid while Carter made a beeline for the group of soldiers.

He found a nurse in the middle of the group, she looked overwhelmed and panicked, but she did have the supplies and the paperwork. "I can help," he offered. She practically hugged him. Handing him a hypo, and some alcohol swabs she smiled.

"You stab, I'm just going to highlight the names, it's only my second day and these guys are kinda scary looking." Carter nodded and smiled back.

"Alright, who's first?"

"Hell no," a soldier answered, but Carter just read the name off of his uniform to the nurse next to him.

"Looks like Hernandez is first, got it?" she marked his name on a plex and Carter pushed the hypo into his arm.

"Damn, that hurt!" Hernandez yelled.

"Don't be a baby, I could have hit the bone if I wanted," he said with a cheerful smile. "Go wait outside, this building has got to be getting close to capacity. If you want a band-aid you can get one from the schoolhouse. I bet they've got some colored ones and they might even give you a sticker." Hernandez glared, but moved out of the way as soon as Carter pulled the hypo ready again to stab.

"Who's next?"

By the time he'd finished all the vaccinations the crowd had thinned considerably. So much so that he saw Deb walking back in the front door. She looked so healthy Carter could hardly believe it.

"Deb," he said as he caught up with her on her walk back to her bed. "Do you feel as great as you look?" She smiled and shook her head.

"How many women have you charmed in your life, Carter?" When he gave her a confused face she continued, "You are the biggest flirt I've ever met. And I've met a lot of people."

"I dunno, that sounds like you're flirting with me," he replied with a smile.

"I'm great, I was just going to check on Skye, any news on when she'll be back to full health?"

"Not yet," he said as his smile fell. "But hopefully soon."

"Is she going to talk to someone?" Deb asked cautiously. "Dr. Shannon mentioned that she was hoping to get her started with some counseling, to help with her anxiety."

"Yeah, that's what the doc is hoping for. I'm concerned she won't actually talk about anything, but I guess at this point it can't get much worse, so it might help, right?"

They stopped in front of the door to the room and Deb put her hand on his shoulder. "You've done an amazing job taking care of her, but now you can let other people help."

Carter nodded and sighed heavily before opening the door and gesturing for Deb to enter. Just as he was about to follow her, Dr. Shannon appeared at his side.

"Trina just told me what you did," she said stoically.

"Yeah, sorry, it was just so hectic-" he started but the doctor smiled and interrupted him.

"No, I came to thank you." He sighed relieved and returned the smile. "Trina would have been eaten alive by those soldiers. They can be such whiners, it would have taken her twice the amount of time, and that's a conservative estimate. She's shy and inexperienced. You, on the other hand, I appreciate very much that you stepped up and took charge. If you stick around, I'm sure we can find you a place."

Carter held up his hands. "Whoa, I didn't say we were staying," he said uneasily. "And I don't think I'd want to work in here anyways."

"Oh, no, you'd be out there." She gestured towards the windows where he could see the section of soldiers forming up. "Lieutenant Washington was the best combat medic this colony had and no one has dared to try and take her place, so we've had a string of very nervous young women trying to support the soldiers and well, they don't respond well to it."

"The soldiers or the young women?"

"Neither." Dr. Shannon turned back to Skye's room. "Well, now that I've got a minute, I'm going to check on her, shall we?" Carter nodded and followed her into the room with the thoughts of a job opportunity where he could stab Terra Novan soldiers often, just with a different kind of weapon.

Some time after dinner, Jim Shannon checked back in with Carter. "Did you miss me that much?" Carter said dryly putting down the plex full of medical articles he'd been reading. "Or were you just making sure I hadn't somehow snuck away to kill a psychotic bastard while you were out looking for needles and haystacks?"

"A needle in a haystack," Jim corrected but Carter just shrugged. "We didn't find anything."

"I've said it before but pain is scary. Pain is going to make him tell us," Carter said as he nudged Jim out the door of the room. Skye was sleeping and he didn't want to bother her. They walked outside in the cool night and Jim looked at him seriously.

"You beat him within an inch of his life, how chatty was he at that point?"

"He might have gotten chatty had you not interrupted," Carter offered, but he didn't really believe it.

"We're going to have to outsmart him," Jim said.

"Oh, that should be easy," Carter said fastidiously. "Manipulate the genius, no big deal. I'll just waltz in there and tell him he _can_ have Skye, but he has to tell us how to make her better first. That will definitely work."

Shannon looked off into the night. They stood silently a moment before he turned to Carter. "Does Lucas know that she's pregnant?"

"I don't know," Carter said slowly. "What difference does it make?"

"What if we tell him it's his baby?" Jim looked at him seriously.

"No," Carter said forcefully.

"But-" Jim started but Carter interrupted.

"No, we are not using the very people we're trying to save to manipulate him."

"You picked an interesting time to grow a pair of morals."

"Really?" Carter shot back. "I feel like the only thing I've been consistently moral about is Skye."

"That's a matter to be debated," Jim replied with raised brows.

"Let's not have that talk right now," he said with a huff. "We're not going to tell Lucas the baby is his. That might not even work because we don't know if he actually raped her." He fists clenched at the thought but he pressed on. "You can't trick someone like that without all the information and I'd rather not get that information right now. She's doing really well emotionally and I think that's going to set her back. And what do you accomplish by telling Lucas the baby is his? You think that's going to be the catalyst for him to fess up? Because I doubt that."

"You don't know all the history," Shannon said plainly. "Skye never told you, then?" Carter shook his head and Jim continued.

"Lucas' mother was killed when he was just a kid, his father had to choose who would live and who would die, Taylor choose Lucas, presumably because his mother would have chosen the same thing. Lucas thinks that Taylor has stolen away his mother and blamed him for it all these years. It's why he hates his father. It's why he can't seem to connect with reality."

"Great, fantastic." Carter gestured wildly. "But it's not going to work. We don't know what really happened and I'm not going to ask her right now."

"Let Elisabeth ask her," Jim suggested. Carter shook his head. "What if we just float the idea?"

"No."

"Have you got a better idea?" he asked frustrated. "This colony is not going to last much longer without Taylor running it, never mind the fact that we don't know how much longer he and Skye are going to be around. Lucas could have some kind of kill dose we don't know about, he could be sitting around just biding his time until both of their bodies give out. Then we've got a mad man in the brig who thinks that he can just be in charge of the colony."

Carter scrubbed his face and realized he was very tired. Tired of the same shit that had been going on for months. Taking care of Skye, hunting down Lucas, it was exhausting, now being thrown into Terra Nova and all the politics that came with that. He needed a stiff drink.

"If he's in the brig, who cares what he thinks?" Carter said frustrated. "I don't care what the reason is, it's a shit idea and it's not going to work. He's not going to just give up the info because we told him he's going to be a father. Especially since we aren't sure that's a possibility."

"It would work if you told him that. If you played him."

"Well, you've just found the one thing I'm _not _willing to do in this situation." He looked back to the hospital doors. "I'm going to go, if you think of some grand scheme that doesn't involve pure stupidity, let me know."

Before Jim could reply, Carter was back in the building walking into Skye's room.

"Hey," Skye said without opening her eyes as she lay in bed. "I'm cold, will you come warm me up?"

"I think that's what blankets are for," he said rudely. She opened her eyes to glare at him.

"What a lovely mood you're in," she replied. He felt a stab of guilt and lay down beside her but she pushed against his chest. "Oh, no, douche bags aren't allowed in this bed. You can go get in that one." She pointed to the other bed.

"I'm sorry, I just had thing and it made me want to punch things and…" he stopped when he noticed her closing her eyes again. "If I'm boring you, please, go back to sleep," he said sharply.

"I'm not sleeping, it's the light," she said softly and he felt like an idiot for not realizing that the bathroom light was on and shining right in her face. How could he have forgotten?

"I'll turn it off." He started to get up but she placed a hand on his arm.

"No," she said quickly. "Just keep talking. I'm fine."

"You aren't."

"Shut up," she said with a small smile. "You're just trying to get out of apologizing for being a douche bag. You can just pick up right around the part where you were saying that I'm so awesome to put up with a shit head like you."

He chuckled and kissed her lightly. "You are so awesome. But I mean, I'm pretty great, too." She shrugged and he continued. "I'm sorry. I think I'm going stir crazy around here."

"Reason number one we can't stay," she said easily. His brow furrowed and he stopped a second to collect his thoughts. She opened one eye and peeked at him before closing it again. "I know they want me to stay."

"Of course they do." It was the best reply he could muster and he felt like an idiot for it. "But maybe you should stay…"

"I'm not staying anywhere that doesn't include having lots of sex with you."

"You are so romantic," he said dryly.

"Ow!" she yelped and grabbed her belly. "This kid is going to be exactly like you, I can already tell."

Carter was never so thankful for a swift kick from the baby. He wasn't ready to talk about staying or going. "Exactly like me how?"

"His kicks are going to leave bruises." Skye took a deep breath and pushed back on her belly. "I swear he could break my ribs."

"Hey, no breaking ribs," he said with a hand on her stomach. "She's got enough problems as it is, Carter Jr."

"Oh hell no, we are not calling him Carter Jr." Skye said firmly.

"It's a good name," he said proudly.

"No. What about Theodore?" she offered. He made a face and scoffed.

"If you want to get beat up at school every day."

"My grandfather's name was Theodore," she said offended.

"And it's a wonder he got a chance with your grandmother with a name like that."

"It's a miracle no one has killed you yet for being a terrible human being," she said frustrated.

"What about Magnus?" he suggested as he brushed some hair from her face. She laughed.

"You're joking, right?"

"No, I wasn't but I assume by your reaction that's not going to make the short list," Carter said defeated.

"That's not a name that's a title or I dunno, sounds like a chemical compound," she said still giggling. "Let's cross Zeus and Thor off the list, too, alright? Those are not happening."

"You are so small minded."

"I think you're just shouting out the most absurd names you can think of so that Carter Jr. doesn't sound so bad, but it's not going to work," she said and he hated that she'd caught on to his plan.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"What I'm talking about is-" she abruptly stopped speaking and clutched her stomach. He saw the pain on her face and reached for her belly. It was tight. She was having a contraction. Soon a monitor started to ping and he got up quickly and opened the door just in time for a nurse and a doctor to come rushing through. The problem was, Dr. Shannon had already gone home and the doctor was Dr. Preston.

The first thing he did was turn on the lights, causing Skye to groan in more pain. Carter quickly turned them off receiving a glare from the doctor. "I'm trying to find out what's wrong with your wife, sir."

Carter stood next to the light switches unmoving. "She's photosensitive to the point of pain right now, which you'd know if you'd looked over her chart, ever." He watched the doctor scan her chart but the man still looked harshly back at him. "She's having contractions and she's already not a big fan of men right now, so you can shut the fuck up and find some magnesium sulfate to get her so she can keep that baby in her belly, dumb ass."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were a doctor," he replied sarcastically. "Did you want to just take care of her?"

"I would if I could, fucker, but I don't know where you keep your stash of drugs and I'd assume it's locked up." Carter glared at the doctor again before turning to the nurse. "How about you call Dr. Shannon at home and get her back here." Turning back to the arrogant doctor, Carter continued, "You can get out."

"Fine," the doctor said before he left in a huff. He came close to bumping into Carter and he was lucky he didn't. As tightly as Carter was wound he probably would have punched him in the gut for it.

Carter returned to his spot by Skye and felt her belly again. Still hard, but it was different than the last time. This time she was in serious pain. He could see it on her face. He may have dropped out of medical school all those years ago, and he might have been winging it in the jungle, trying herbs and finding the right combination of things to produce some common meds, but since he'd gotten to Terra Nova all he'd had was time and he spent a lot of the time Skye was sleeping, reading medical texts about pregnancy. Of course he was concerned about how her sick body had been able to even carry a fetus, but he knew now that wasn't unfounded.

He handed Skye some water and helped her lie down flat on her side. "Dr. Shannon will be here in a bit, but we've got to get you calmed down."

"You shouldn't have yelled at that doctor," she said between sips of water. "He didn't know."

"From the way he took the criticism I'm pretty sure he's not that great of a doctor, I'd rather not have some stupid mistake he made kill you or Junior," he argued.

"We are not…" she started but stopped to let out a breath because of the pain. "We're not naming him Carter Jr. It's a stupid name."

"So is Skye, what's that about? I'm going to ask your mom about that, who names their kid Skye?"

"Shut up," she managed through gritted teeth. Dr. Shannon came rushing in and thankfully the nurse had grabbed something for Skye. The doctor pushed the drugs into her IV and soon she was relaxing.

"Thank God." Carter stood to speak to Dr. Shannon. "Don't let that other doctor anywhere near her. He's an idiot."

"You can't speak to people that way," she scolded him but he rolled his eyes. "It would have been better if she had gotten those meds right away, but your little fit prolonged her pain."

"He wasn't smart enough to know what to give her or how to treat her, and she was already frantic."

"Hi," Skye said with a wave as both he and Dr. Shannon turned back to her. "Yeah, remember me, the one who is sick and pregnant? The one you guys are fighting about? How about we tell me what the hell is going on with my body, direct your energy into figuring out how to make it stop happening to me, so that I don't have to be in this bed for the next three months until this baby is ready to come out."

"Sorry," Dr. Shannon said. Carter refused to apologize but Skye stared him down until he mumbled something similar. "I can see you're frustrated with the lack of progress we've made, but I've run every test, I've run your blood and Taylor's together, I just don't know what is making you sick. At this point all I can do is keep you healthy enough to continue carrying the baby."

Carter watched Skye's stern face slowly change to one of hopelessness.

"Basically," Dr. Shannon said somberly. "Your body can't handle being pregnant and trying to stay healthy at the same time. You're going to keep having contractions and we're going to keep stopping them."

"And then I have the baby and what?" she asked upset. "Then I'm still sick and I can't do anything and I can't take care of myself or a baby and I just sit around being sick, all the time. I don't want to live like that." She was holding back tears. Carter sat beside her pulling her to his chest. But she didn't cry. "I hate him," she whispered. She whispered it over and over again and Carter wished he could do anything but just hold her and listen.

As soon as he got her to sleep, he asked Deb to sit with her and he walked to the Shannon home.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Josh asked when he answered the door. It took all of Carter's restraint not to sock him in his smug jaw.

"Is your daddy home, little boy?" he asked knowing it would irritate Josh.

"Fuck you," Josh snapped but Carter glared.

"I am going to say this once, and that is all," Carter said, his voice low and intimidating. "You don't like me. I don't like you. I don't see that changing. But Skye is sick. And if you care about her, you're going to leave her alone." Josh bristled and Carter narrowed his eyes. "All you're going to do is throw her off balance, bitch at her, make her feel like shit for whatever decisions she's made that you don't agree with."

Josh tried to interrupt but Carter spoke over him, "No, seriously, shut up, she doesn't need the stress that you're going to bring. You want to bitch at me, let's dance, kid, but your beef isn't with me, it's with her because she wouldn't wait around for you to get your shit together, so just let it go." The younger man furrowed his brow and looked sullen.

"Do I need to break this up?" Jim Shannon appeared from the house looking fatherly. Josh skulked off and Carter forgot about him the minute he was out of sight focusing on more important things.

"Fine, we'll do your stupid plan," Carter said to the Sheriff. "But only if your wife talks to her tomorrow and finds out what really happened."

"Alright, we'll do it tomorrow afternoon then." Jim nodded.

"You better think up some convincing shit for me to say because I don't really want to even think about it," Carter said before turning and walking back to the hospital.

When morning rolled around he was happy to see Skye was in a better mood. She smiled as she kissed his chest and ran a hand down him. "You have an appointment with Dr. Shannon today," he said grabbing her hand as it went for his pants. "As much as I'd love to take advantage of the mood you're in, I need you to talk to her today. Are you going to be okay talking to her?"

"No," she said seriously but his concerned face must have propelled her forward. "I don't want to, but she's right, I need to. I'm a mess emotionally and if that's the only thing I can fix and have some control over, well, at least I can do that for myself."

"Do you want me here? When you talk to her?" he asked cautiously. He didn't really want to be around for it, but if she wanted him, nothing could make him leave her, even his churning stomach. She shook her head, though.

"God no," she said quickly. "The last person I want around is you." He narrowed his eyes and she smiled humorlessly. "You told Jim Shannon you wouldn't kill Lucas. If you sit here with me, all you're going to want to do is rip his throat out. I want to kill him and I haven't even…" she stalled, biting her lip. "It's just not something you should sit through."

He kissed her forehead softly. "What about your mom?"

"No, I don't," again she paused. "Just Dr. Shannon. I'll be alright."

"It's okay if you want someone here, your mom would at least be less likely to go on a killing spree." He was glad to see her smile at the joke but again she shook her head.

"I'll be fine."

After breakfast, Dr. Shannon came in. "Are you doing alright this morning?"

"As well as I can be." Skye pulled her hair back into a ponytail as Carter cleaned up around the bed and helped her get comfortable before offering the chair to Dr. Shannon.

"I'm going to go, I'll be…" he shrugged his shoulders because he didn't really know here he'd be. "I'll be around." She grabbed his hand and he leaned over her to kiss her. "I can stay, if you need me to," he whispered as he leaned his forehead against hers, she shook her head again.

"No, I'm alright. Just…"

"This doesn't change anything about you or us," he whispered. "I don't care about whatever happened. I don't think less of you and you are strong enough to handle this. You're better than him and he doesn't control any part of you." She nodded and he saw her resolve strengthen. She wiped a tear from her eye and swallowed.

"Don't get into trouble."

"Me? I never find trouble?" he joked and she rolled her eyes.

He stood outside the room a minute. The door wasn't quite closed and he couldn't stop himself from listening.

"Where do you want to start?" Dr. Shannon asked.

"Might as well start when he took me," she answered. "It was cold and Greta was sick. I'd gone to help her since Carter was gone. He was out hunting. There had been a pack of carnos that were testing the limits of the camp at night. He'd been gone a few days actually." He heard Skye take a deep breath and continue. "I checked on my mom, then I went back to our room. I guess if I'd stayed with my mom that night, instead of going back…"

"Don't second guess yourself, Skye, it won't help," Dr. Shannon said sincerely.

"Anyways, I walked into the room and it was dark, he was in the shadows, I just remember the creepy smile, all teeth, worse than a dinosaur."

She started to cry and Carter knew he needed to stop listening. It was just making him angry. Pushing away from the door, he swiftly headed for the exit, but he bumped square into Reynolds.

"Damn, Straight-laced, look where you're walking, will ya?" He pushed against Reynolds' shoulder but the soldier refused to budge.

"Stop being such a bastard and do the same," he retorted. Carter's fists clenched and he swallowed a growl.

"The mood I'm in right now, I will hit you and you will hurt, just fucking move." A woman holding a child gasped at the scene and presumably the language. Reynolds apologized like the pussy he was but Carter just continued towards the door.

"You going to run around the colony cursing and pushing people over?" Reynolds followed him out the hospital and down the stairs. "Because I can't let you do that."

"Did Shannon tell you I needed to be followed? I bought off on his idiotic and cruel plan so I won't be trying to kill Lucas today, I don't need a chaperone or a guard." Carter bitched over his shoulder as he continued to walk away.

"Where do you get off being such an ass hat?" Reynolds caught up with him. Carter stopped and turned to face him, his hands itching to hit. If they were in his territory, in his camp, this would never happen. On the rare chance anyone tried to mouth off to him, they were on the ground before the insult was fully formed. He pressed his lips together tightly and clenched his fists again, glaring and slowly shaking his head.

"Since I can't hit Lucas, I'm more than willing to take out all this aggression on you, Straight-laced, you might want to keep moving so I don't," he spoke low and slowly, his jaw tense. But Reynolds seemed to be encouraged by the threats.

"Like you could even bruise me," he said arrogantly. "But I tell you what, let's go find out, I've got time to kill and I'm sure there are plenty of guys in the gym that want to watch someone get their ass kicked."

"Fine, but I hope you don't mind when I beat you in front of your men, because I will." Reynolds laughed without humor and Carter shook his head. This was going to be fun.

Reynolds led the way to a gym that held punching bags, climbing ropes, weight machines, treadmills and all the sorts of things that Carter remembered from junior high. He bet they played dodge ball on the weekends, too.

Carter followed as he was led into an area clearly meant for sparring. He rolled his shoulders and moved his head back and forth a minute while Reynolds emptied his pockets.

Standing in the middle of the area, Carter was ready, the adrenaline started to pump and soon enough, Reynolds was lunging towards him. He blocked two attempts easily and rolled his eyes. "Who taught you how to hit, your girlfriend?"

Carter easily landed a punch on the other man's jaw as he was distracted by the trash talk. He shook his head to clear it and glared. "Mock all you want but she can hit harder than you."

With a chuckle and a raised eyebrow, Carter nodded. "Is that so? Guess that might be true, I'm more of a legs man." He kicked out but Reynolds caught his foot and twisted, Carter took advantage of the momentum and flipped his whole body, barely pushing a kick against Reynolds' chest and landed on two feet easily. "Wait, I know who taught you to fight."

The soldier rubbed at his chest where Carter's foot had made contact and threw him a look. "Lieutenant Washington, and if you say one word against her I'll let all these guys watching jump your ass."

Carter threw up his arms. "Wasn't gonna, that woman could fight, she bested me once, if I'd had another chance, I'd have gotten her, but I won't lie, I was bruised after she and I scuffled."

Reynolds ducked low and came at him swiftly, grabbing at his legs and tossing him over. He rolled quickly to right himself and smirked at the younger man. "That's all you got, Straight-laced? I could do this shit in my sleep."

At that, Reynolds kicked his own foot but Carter blocked it with his forearm. "Carter," Jim Shannon hollered from the other end of the gym. Carter turned his head a half second to glance at Shannon and when he turned back the soldier was right in front of him, he knocked his forehead against Carter's and he landed on the floor.

"Will the two of you break it up for a minute, geez," the Sherriff said as he walked to the two men. Reynolds offered Carter a hand and a smirk. He took the hand and shook his head but he was impressed by the kid, he hadn't expected the head butt. As Shannon stood in front of them, Reynolds' countenance instantly shifted from cocky to nervous hamster and Carter side eyed him confused until he cottoned on.

"Oh, right, you're fucking his daughter."

Both men glared at Carter and Jim spoke slowly. "Never use any combination of those words together in front of me."

Carter shrugged unbothered by the harsh tone. "_I'm_ not fucking your daughter…Ow, Straight-laced," he said perturbed after Reynolds smacked his chest with the back of his hand.

"We're going to go ahead this afternoon," Jim said changing the subject. "We've got the information we need."

Even though he knew it was a possibility, the truth that Lucas raped Skye still slammed hard into him making Reynolds' smack seem like a friendly cuddle. His body tensed and his stomach rolled but he did his best to keep his face stoic.

"She's asking for you," Jim said watching him intently.

Carter didn't bother saying anything. What would he have said? He just ran.

By the time he was coming up on their room in the hospital his lungs burned and he had to take a moment to compose himself outside the door. Again, keeping his stoic face, he entered slowly.

Inside, he saw that Deb was sitting in the chair that Dr. Shannon had previously occupied. She held Skye's hand and smiled when he came to sit on the foot of the bed. "Alright sweetie, I'm going to go, I'll come by in a bit to sit with you some more," Deb said as she stood. "Someone just dropped a plex on my bed and you know, there's the most wonderful book on it, I'll come by and read it with you. You'll love it. I know for sure."

Deb placed a kiss on Skye's forehead and then squeezed Carter's arm as she turned to go. He nodded and turned back to Skye. Crawling up the bed, he took her in his arms and held her. She didn't speak for a few minutes and he didn't mind. He stroked her hair and waited.

"You smell." He felt the words against his chest and chuckled. "Did you get into trouble?"

"Nah," he replied, his lips against her forehead as he spoke. "That soldier, the one that is going to marry the Shannon girl, he and I did a couple of rounds of sparring."

"Oh God," she said dramatically. "You didn't break him, did you? Maddy will be pissed if you broke Mark."

"Actually no, the kid isn't terrible at it. He got in a good head butt." He moved his hand up and down her arm soothingly and he felt her relax in his arms. "Do you feel any better? Worse? Different?"

Glad that she didn't tense again, he waited for her to speak. "I dunno, I feel…raw."

"I'm sorry," he said feeling guilty. He wasn't sure he'd ever stop feeling guilty over the fact he wasn't there, he couldn't stop it, even when Lucas was dead, Carter imagined he'd still feel inadequate.

"If it's not my fault, it's certainly not yours," Skye said strongly, but Carter just shrugged. She paused again and he thought maybe that was all she'd say about it, but she started again and her words cut through him. "The things he did to me…I don't know why you want me."

"Hey, I will always want you." He lifted her chin so he could look her in the eyes. "Whatever he did, whatever happened to you, it doesn't matter. Nothing is going to change how I feel about you." The tears formed in her eyes, but she didn't cry. "It is okay to cry, you know," he said but she shook her head.

"I'm tired of it. My eyes are sore and I don't want to do it anymore." She was firm and he couldn't help the fact that he was proud. Certain parts of her were still hurt or sick or not quite put together properly, like a puzzle with a piece askew, but he could see it was changing. Being here, talking to people, having her mother well, these little things were causing a shift in Skye.

"Okay."

"You really stink," she said after a few more minutes of silence.

"Princess, I'm offended. You don't like my man musk?" he teased and she laughed.

"Please never say that again."

"What? Man musk?" he repeated doing the opposite of what she'd asked.

"Yeah, stop calling it that," Skye replied smiling. "It's funny though, we've been here and all showered and clean like normal people, I almost forgot."

"You forgot that we get stinky and don't just have running water? Spoiled."

"I know, I know." She held a hand over her eyes in embarrassment. He moved it and kissed her softly.

"We should stay here," he said when pulled away from her lips. Her eyes grew wide and he chuckled. "Your eyeballs are going to dry out like that."

"Shut up," she said as she rolled her eyes. "You don't want to stay. You hate it here."

"But it's not about me," he said running his fingers along her jaw line. "We did it my way and it made you sick," at that she tried to speak but he covered her mouth. "And stinky, poor Princess didn't have running water or air conditioning." Skye bit one of the fingers that covered her mouth but Carter didn't remove his hand, just gave her a wolfish grin. "Don't bite if you can't follow through, baby."

She pushed his hand away and shook her head. "Jackass," she mumbled before returning to the more serious conversation. "We don't have to stay here, I know you think you don't belong here."

"Things change." He shrugged. "Your mom deserves to stay here, even when you're better, Dr. Shannon wants to be able to monitor you and the baby and then the baby, he doesn't deserve to be stuck in the jungle. The gates and the steady stream of food, those two things alone are things I can't provide for us easily if we go back."

"But…" she tried but even she knew his arguments were solid though it meant a lot to him that she was concerned about his reaction. "You'll go stir crazy and you hate Taylor."

"Well, Dr. Shannon already offered me a job."

"The last place you'd want to work is here, in a building all day long," she said with narrowed eyes.

"Not here," he explained. "They need a combat medic, since Washington died they haven't been able to fill the position. Apparently my little vaccination routine yesterday was better than a job interview."

"Mira isn't going to be happy," Skye offered.

"She won't even miss me." He looked up at the wall. That might have been a lie, but he didn't really care. Mira was not his concern, taking care of his family was. "Besides, Taylor is on some good drugs, he's willing to open the colony to anyone from camp if they want to come back."

"Those are some good drugs, then again, the colony needs people, without the portal, this place could easily die out if they don't make an effort. Do you think anyone would come back?"

Carter shrugged. "Don't know, but I'll take the information to Mira," he paused and put his hand on her belly. "How's Junior handling all of this?"

'We are _not_ naming him Carter Jr."

"You're right, a better name would be Olaf," he said with a grin. She shook her head.

"I pity this child," she said before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep in his arms. He picked up the plex on the table and flipped through more of the medical texts. Might as well brush up on any new information.

After a few hours, Jim knocked on the door. Carter got up and tucked the blanket around a still sleeping Skye. His hair stood on end when he thought about what he was about to do, but Jim was right, this might be the only way. He brushed some hair off her forehead and walked out the door. Jim nodded at him but both men stayed silent. Walking out, he waved at Deb, she didn't know what was going on, but she wasn't stupid, he figured she might have an idea, especially with the sober faces he and Jim made. She grabbed a plex and headed back to Skye's room.

Before they walked into the cell in the brig, Jim finally spoke. "I'm going to let you hit him a couple of times, because I don't think he'll buy it if I don't." Carter bit the inside of his cheek and Jim continued, "but can you stick to his gut? If you knock out his teeth, its going to be tricky for him to tell us anything don't you think?"

"Fine," he agreed.

"You know what you're going to say?" Jim asked. "You ready?"

"Not really a thing you're ever ready for," Carter said shortly. Jim gave him a sympathetic look but Carter brushed him off and took a deep breath. "Let's get this over with."

When they walked in the door, Lucas didn't even raise his head. He was seated, hands restrained in front of him, just staring at the wall.

"You sick mother fucker," Carter yelled. He walked over to Lucas, lifted him up roughly by the arm, and hit him solidly in the belly. Lucas doubled over and Carter pulled him up again. He put his face close to his and glared. Lucas' face remained blank. "So you can't get a woman to sleep with you so you steal one away, rape her, and you can't even give her the common courtesy of protection?"

Lucas grinned until the last part of the sentence sunk in. Carter hit him again, this time in the kidneys. "You knew she didn't want you so you thought maybe that would convince her?" He pushed Lucas just enough to make him sway. He tried not to think about what he was about to do, he thought back to Skye saying how raw she felt, and that's when he realized all this time, he'd felt the same way. The whole situation, his whole world for the past six months had stripped him raw.

He leaned close to Lucas' ear and spoke slowly, "Or maybe it was me, did you think I wouldn't want her if she was carrying your bastard?" Waiting just a moment for effect, Carter took a step back and bore into Lucas with as much hate as he was feeling. They stood there, Lucas trying not to look caught off guard and Carter menacing and angry. After a minute Carter spoke again.

"So now the question is, are you going to let her die carrying your bastard or are you going to tell us how to fix her? Because her body can't handle it. She's gone into preterm labor twice now. She's going to die if you don't fix her."

Lucas stared at his feet. The smug smile gone, Carter could practically see the wheels turning in his head. He glanced at Jim and the older man took it as a signal to begin speaking. "We all know you want your father to suffer, and you have no qualms about killing him, but the way you lost your mother…" he trailed off as he walked toward Lucas. "Do you plan on perpetuating the cycle? You want your own son to live life without a mother?"

"This is a trick," Lucas whispered, clear he was trying to work it out. "I haven't seen her since she ran away from me, you're both lying to me."

Carter looked to Jim again, and then grabbed Lucas' shoulders and kneed him in the gut. As Lucas stood hunched over, the wind knocked out of him, Carter spoke again. "I wish this was a game, but it's not." The Sheriff held up a plex with some doctored DNA tests and shoved it into Lucas' restrained hands. "You want to check our math? I always wondered, but it was the first test I asked them to run when I got here." Carter felt a stab of guilt at the statement, as it was more of a half-truth; he'd at least had the decency to wait until Dr. Shannon had run the other more important tests.

"No, I don't believe you." Lucas looked firm, unwavering. "I haven't made her sick, but I can help her, only if you give her back to me!"

"You're not going anywhere with her!" Carter said frustrated running his hands through his hair before giving Jim a look. Shaking his head he headed for the door. "Don't think the Sheriff here can keep you safe," he threw over his shoulder before pushing the door open and continuing, "I will kill you."

Before he'd left the building, Shannon was catching up with him. "That's definitely going to work. 'Tell me _and_ I'm going to kill you.' I'm so impressed with your interrogation skills."

"I told you this plan wasn't going to work." Carter stopped and turned to him. "It was a shit plan and all it did was piss me off. Waste of my time, waste of your time. He needs to know that no matter how long he stalls, I will come for him, and you can't stop me. If I have to bury Skye or our baby I will kill him, but in that instance, it won't be quick, oh no, he will suffer, he will wish he'd told us every last bit of anything in his head because I will make him beg."

Something shifted in Shannon because he took a step back and he almost looked surprised. Carter knew he hadn't scared the man with his vicious speech, but he knew it had thrown the Sheriff. The air was thick in the room and it was now that he noticed there were three soldiers, each with a hand reaching for a sidearm, he took a moment to fix each one of them with a glare before turning and leaving.

A few breaths of chilled night air and Carter realized that people must have assumed he was tamed, no longer the man that came to kill Taylor, no longer the scary boogie man hiding in the trees. The colony was ready to accept he and Skye with open arms and he'd been fine with that, until he saw how quickly that would turn. They would stay, they needed to, if Skye survived, but it wouldn't be easy to just blend in.

That stream of thought led him to his most disturbing idea: Skye's death or the baby's. He hadn't allowed himself to even broach the subject. Six months ago when Lucas had taken her, it had been two days of pure horror, anger, and frustration. But he'd never thought she would be dead. He knew Lucas' infatuation with her, Carter knew Lucas wouldn't kill her, but now, now he wasn't sure she'd survive. It chipped away at him, but the more awful thought was that the baby wouldn't live. Skye would never recover. Her emotional health was teetering on the edge, that baby tied her to reality and without it, Carter knew it would take more than counseling sessions with Dr. Shannon to bring her back to her former self, if she ever returned.

The swirling thoughts led him not back to the hospital, but to Boylan's Bar. "I want three shots of the strongest thing you've got hiding back there."

"And how do you intend to pay for that?" Boylan asked smartly. Carter narrowed his eyes. "I'll start a tab, you'll have money coming in soon enough," he said with a shrug. "Hard day?"

Again, he just stared as Boylan poured the shots. Carter downed one. "How come Taylor never threw you out of the gates for working with us?"

"Well, he put me in the brig for a bit, but that's quite a long story," Boylan said refilling the first shot, giving Carter a total of four to toss back. He did it quickly without making a face or commenting on the burning in his throat. He wasn't really into the idea of feeling anything at the moment. Boylan left him to sit while he helped someone else down the bar.

"You!" someone growled next to Carter. He didn't turn his head, nor did he care who was bothering him. "My arm still hurts from that shot you gave me."

Ah, yes, the idiot from the vaccinations. Carter turned to him with a smirk, he clapped the guy on the arm where he knew he'd administered the vaccine. "Still hurts, pal?"

Hernandez was flanked by two other soldiers who looked like they were supposed to be intimidating. Problem was, Carter wasn't disturbed by them at all. Pursing his lips in thought a moment, he nodded and stood up. "Alright, let's go. This ought to be fun since you three don't seem to know your fists from your asses."

All three soldiers furrowed their brows at the outright insult. Hernandez threw the first punch, but Carter blocked it easily, even in his slightly numb and hazy state. Before another punch was attempted, Reynolds stood in between Carter and the other three soldiers.

"I think you three have duty now, don't you," he said with authority. The men floundered a moment before Reynolds gave them a hard look while Carter stood behind him irritated.

"That would have been fun, Straight-laced," he whined. "I wouldn't have hurt them too badly."

Reynolds turned to Carter with an amused look. "I'm sure." He grabbed Carter's shoulder and pushed him towards the door of the bar. "The last thing I need is three guys in the hospital, Maddy is already working constantly helping Dr. Wallace on some kind of cure for the Commander and Skye, you'd just be hurting your own cause. If Dr. Shannon is patching those guys up, she's not spending time in the lab."

Carter frowned. "But you missed the part where I said it would have been fun."

"I suppose from your demeanor, Jim's brilliant plan didn't work."

"What do you know about that?" Carter asked annoyed.

"I eat dinner at the Shannon's house almost every night, including last night, I overheard your visit." Reynolds kept walking and Carter followed, if anything just to avoid going back to the hospital feeling like a failure.

"It was a shit plan."

"Then how come you're drinking and starting fights, you must have thought it would work or you wouldn't be so pissed it didn't," he said and Carter wanted to hit the kid for being perceptive.

"I'm done with all this shit, the Sheriff is cramping my style, Skye is still sick, and I can't even rip off Lucas' arms and beat him with them. I've looked for months for Lucas. It's been my god damn mission to drain the life from him and now I'm in the thick of things. He's within my reach but I can't do anything about it."

"Tell me how you really feel," Reynolds said with raised eyebrows and a knowing look. "I get it, if the bastard had done that to Maddy, I'd be the same. But you can't just kill him. Then she'll die."

"I thought your woman along with half the science staff were all working on some way to help them."

"They are, and they're the best, but you know he's smarter." Reynolds stopped in front of the hospital.

"You keep up these little feelings sharing sessions and I'm going to think you like me, but just so you know, I don't swing both ways," Carter said with a raised eyebrow and Reynolds just rolled his eyes. In the distance, Jim Shannon was jogging towards them, Carter's brow furrowed and Reynolds turned to see what he was looking at.

"Something happened," he mumbled but Carter's eyes never left Shannon as he met up with them.

"He changed his mind," Jim said excitedly. "It worked, he changed his mind."

Carter stayed stoic. "Are you sure? Maybe he's decided to start playing games with us?"

"We won't know if we don't go back and talk to him," Shannon said smartly. "Come on, we're so close, this is going to work."

He wanted it to work, but still Carter was skeptical. He followed the Sheriff back to the brig anyways. "Are you sure you can't do this without me?" he finally asked as they made it to the doors. "I'm over talking to this asshole. If I have to see him, I want to be able to kill him."

Jim Shannon shook his head. "You need to get over that. It's more believable with you here and you're not going to kill him. We need him."

Carter hated it. He hated that they needed Lucas to tell them how to fix this. He hated that Jim Shannon was more concerned about a cure because it affected the colony and not just Skye. Carter was a selfish person and all he cared about was getting Skye well and whole. But Shannon had to stand for more. He had to worry about the welfare of 1000 people but Carter didn't care.

On top of that he felt helpless. He couldn't help Skye, he thought bringing her here was the right thing to do, and though it did seem to improve things, he still couldn't kill Lucas. He wasn't allowed to torture the truth out of him. Carter didn't like working within the rules of this place and it was grating on him. But he followed Shannon into the room anyways. If it might help Skye, he had to.

When they entered the room, Lucas looked them both over, his face impassive.

"I want to see her," Lucas said and Carter scoffed. "I'll tell you the way to help her, but I will only tell you part of it, then when I see her, when I know that she's really pregnant, then I'll tell you the rest."

Carter shook his head sharply. "No, you can't see her. You've messed with her head enough." But Jim put a hand on his shoulder. "Why are we messing with this guy?" he whispered. "He's insane and I'm not letting him near her."

"If this is what it takes, we do it," Jim replied. "She'll be safe. We'll be right there." The Sheriff turned back to Lucas. "You can see her, but you don't get to talk to her, she's not even going to know you're there. He's right, you've done enough damage to her."

He couldn't help the scowl on his face and the subsequent look he gave the older man, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. He was right, this was still their best chance.

"So, start talking then we can take a walk," Jim continued.

"It's a designer virus," Lucas said with a smirk, clearly proud of himself. "It's invisible, but it reacts to water and food, depending on the person, each reaction is different."

"And?" Carter asked with narrowed eyes. It was a long shot, but maybe if he could keep him talking they'd get all the information and not have to take him anywhere.

"And you can hear the fix when I see her." He wished he could slap the smirk off Lucas' face.

"Aright, let's go." Jim grabbed Lucas by the scruff of his neck and Carter followed.

Carter figured at least Skye would be asleep still. He didn't want her to even get a glimpse of Lucas. He knew it might undo all the progress she'd made emotionally in just a few short days and that would be the worst outcome of this event. Skye might heal physically, but the idea of starting all over emotionally made him angry.

The hospital was quiet. It was just before shift change so the nurses were all hiding, hoping to avoid any last bits of work before they could leave, there were only a few patients anyways. The lights were low so that patients in the main bay could sleep. It was almost eerie and no one seemed to notice that they'd brought a murderer into the building.

Jim halted Lucas just before Skye's room and Carter went forward to make sure she was indeed asleep. He opened the door quietly and saw her lying on her side, her eyes closed, and breathing steady. Deb wasn't there; she must have gone back to her bed. Pulling the blinds up on the door, he wished desperately it were a two-way mirror instead of glass. His heart started to pound and his skin itched as his anger mixed with anxiety. _Here we go_, he thought to himself.

Carter shut the door and nodded at Jim to bring Lucas forward. Where he felt sick and nervous, Lucas looked delightfully demented. A creepy sneer, bright eyes, and an almost giddy step propelled him forward to the window. His hands pressed against the glass, as did his face, like a child looking through a pet store window.

"I want to get closer," Lucas said, breath fogging an area on the glass.

Both Jim and Carter said, "No," though Carter's was more forceful.

"It's a boy? You said that, right?" Lucas asked Jim, his voice childlike and full of excitement. It made Carter's hair stand on end. Jim nodded in response. "My blood," he said quietly. "That's how I altered the virus. I put my own DNA in it, it was in a small capsule, genius really, obviously."

Before Carter or Jim could enjoy the fact that their ploy had worked, several alarms sounded; they were coming from Taylor's room. Dr. Shannon came out of nowhere and was running into the room. Jim followed her without a glance back to Carter or their maniac prisoner. Carter looked towards the room to see several nurses heading into the room as the alarms continued blaring.

He'd only looked away for a second, but when his eyes were back on Lucas, he'd turned to face Carter and his hands, palms up, rammed into his nose so hard it knocked Carter over. Before he could get up, Lucas had locked himself in Skye's room. Standing up quickly and trying the door he stood in horror as he watched Lucas stroke Skye's face, she'd woken, probably from the alarms, and she'd already started crying and screaming. Pushing his elbow through the glass of the door quickly, he reached through and opened the door from the other side, not caring that his arm was bleeding from the glass.

"That's my baby, we're going to be a family, and you'll see Bucket, you'll love me!" Lucas was saying over Skye as she cried and struggled against him as he held her down with tied hands.

Carter pulled his knife from his waist, the one he'd originally taken days ago to kill Lucas. Coming behind Lucas, he went for his neck, but Lucas caught his wrist and turned the knife towards Skye. Twisting as best he could, Carter tried to bring the knife back to Lucas, but Lucas had two hands on his wrist and Carter was trying not to add weight to Skye since Lucas was still on top of her. He pulled his arm far enough out that he could drop it safely away from Skye's body and pulled Lucas off her. Both fell to the floor and Lucas managed to get his hands around Carter's neck.

Carter pushed against him, then began clawing at the hands around his neck as his field of vision started to narrow and his lungs burned from lack of oxygen. He realized it was embarrassing, being bested by Lucas like this, and the fact that he was leaving Skye unprotected, he just hoped that Jim Shannon would come to the rescue before Lucas could touch Skye and the baby.

He'd spent all his time protecting them and now he'd failed. His life wasn't flashing before his eyes. Their lives were. The coy smiles she gave him when he'd kissed her thoroughly, her eyes as she cried, the chances he'd miss. Holding his son, watching him grow and watching Skye recover and become herself again: the woman who didn't take his shit, the independent one who pushed back. At least they'd be here in Terra Nova, safe.

But just as he had those thoughts, he saw Lucas' eyes go wide and felt his hands go slack.

Taking in rough breaths, Carter saw Skye plunging the knife into Lucas' back, over and over again. As carefully as he could, he moved from his spot on the floor and sat up slowly. Skye was still stabbing at an obviously lifeless Lucas with tears streaming down her face.

He made out the words "I hate you!" but mostly it was just incoherent cries, like that of an injured animal. He let her continue until his own breathing had returned to normal and then he carefully approached her. She was kneeling so he scooted himself over to her.

"Princess." The knife still went in and out of Lucas' back as though she didn't hear him. "Skye," he said a little louder. She turned quickly, her face covered in tears and splatters of Lucas' blood, her eyes wild. He waited for the moment when she'd return to reality and was relieved when he saw the recognition light in her. She dropped the knife and hiccupping and crying, she fell into his open arms.

"It's over now," he said hoping the words soothed her. Before he'd been worried about how she'd handle seeing him, now he didn't know what the effects of the encounter would be, but Carter hoped that Skye killing Lucas might be a sort of detachment, closure. Maybe now she could take control and feel stronger now. "You saved yourself. You did that and now it's over."

The crying didn't abate; instead, it became louder. Skye looked up at him with panic in her eyes. "Oh God, it hurts," she said between sobs.

Carter realized it could be any number of things: Lucas had been on top of her, he himself had dropped a knife out of the way of her, but he could have missed, she might have hurt herself with the physical force it took to stab a man as many times as she just had.

"What is it? What's the matter?" he asked concerned but she just continued crying. As though on cue, Dr. Shannon came into the room and stopped abruptly at the sight of Lucas' body.

"You need to look at her, she's in pain," Carter said craning his head to see the doctor behind him.

"We need to get her up so I can examine her," she replied looking away from the body on the floor. He picked her up with some effort, the tingles in his arm reminded him he'd probably cut it on the glass badly enough to require stitches or at least some glue. "I'll ask you what happened later, I suppose." Elisabeth added when he'd gotten Skye on the bed.

He shrugged and as the doctor examined Skye, Carter held her hand and wiped the tears and blood from her face. "It's the baby again, isn't it?" he asked the doctor but directed the question at Skye. She nodded and Dr. Shannon sighed.

"Her blood pressure is through the roof as is her heart rate, she's going into shock." Dr. Shannon looked at the monitors again. "We may need to sedate her, I don't think medication is going to stop this if her body can't relax."

Skye shook her head furiously and tried to speak through her tears. "Don't, please don't sedate me, I don't…I don't want to feel like that…"

Carter looked to the doctor concerned then back to Skye. "You need to calm down, then, deep breaths, think about boring things, I dunno, rainbows and puppies and shit." She narrowed her eyes at him and he tried to smile. "I'm not the best person to calm someone down, okay? I enjoy riling people up." Skye began taking deep breaths and Carter bent over her belly. "Listen kid, we are not ready for you yet, okay? I know things seem exciting out here, but they aren't, trust me, it's a snore. Your momma needs to stop being sick and that would be a lot easier for her if you just stayed put, alright, Junior?"

The pep talk had its desired affect as Skye tried not to laugh and her tears slowed. "We're not naming him Junior, I don't care how much you push it." He smiled and she shook her head.

"See, that's one more reason not to make a break for it, kid, we'll just end up calling you 'kid' for a few months until we can decide on the inevitable."

"It's not inevitable," Skye groaned in between her breathes.

"Alright," Dr. Shannon interrupted. "Keep breathing deeply for me, okay? I'm going to give you something that will hopefully stop the labor again, but you need to keep your heart rate down. You have to stay calm."

"And then you need to start working on the antidote," Carter said suddenly remembering. When the doctor looked confused, he tilted his head towards the body on the floor. "He told us it was in his blood, a designer virus meant to react to food and water."

At that revelation Dr. Shannon called for a nurse. "Get that out of here," she said in reference to Lucas' body. "Take 10 vials of blood, as well, and send it right over to the lab."

"Carter," Jim Shannon called from the doorway.

"Go get her mom and then I'll talk to you," he said not even looking at the perturbed man. Carter continued to stand by Skye, calming her as best he could and when Deb came he was relieved. "You're probably better at this anyways," he said in passing to Deb. He turned to Skye before he left to assure he wasn't going far.

"What the hell happened?" Shannon asked when Carter met him outside the room.

"You tell me," Carter snapped losing the relaxed demeanor he'd put on for Skye. "You went chasing after your fearless leader and his health and when I turned back to Lucas he popped me in the nose hard enough to knock me over and lock himself in their with her," he said angry.

The Sheriff had the sense to soften his stance. "So you killed him?"

"No." Shannon looked confused before he figured it out. "That explains why his back looks like ground beef. Why didn't you stop her, she must have stabbed him more than 10 times."

"I was trying to catch my breath, the bastard tried to strangle me," Carter explained rubbing his neck at the memory. "I finally pulled her off him, but it was a delicate situation, I didn't want her coming at me with that knife, she was hysterical."

"Well, I guess there's nothing to be done about it, now."

"You think?" he bit out. "Taylor survive?"

"He coded but Elisabeth brought him back, she needs to get to work on that cure, I don't think Taylor will last much longer without it," he said.

"Hopefully that's it and all will be well soon." Carter looked back to the room. "I'm going back in there."

Jim nodded and Carter gave him a final look before going to sit next to Skye. She was better, her vitals were normal, her contractions had stopped and he thanked the doctor and every deity he could think of that this battle seemed to be over.

Someone was poking Carter awake. He hated to be poked awake, but if someone was poking him, that meant it was Skye. She knew how much he hated it and did it anyways. Poke, poke, poke right on his chest. His brow furrowed and he growled, "You wanna keep that finger, Princess?"

"Ha, like you'd do anything," Skye teased. "Open your eyes doofus, Dr. Shannon has good news."

At that he did open his eyes. "What time is it?"

"It's 5:30, but I thought you'd want to hear this," Dr. Shannon said from the foot of the bed. "We've manufactured something we think is going to work."

Carter sat up and smiled wide at Skye who returned the smile and then he turned back to the doctor. "Well, you going to give it to her or what?"

"We're going to give it to Commander Taylor first," she replied cautiously but held up a hand when Carter tried to interrupt her. "I don't know that it will work and the last person you want to test new drugs on is a pregnant woman."

"That's fine, I think I'd rather you make sure it works first anyways," Skye said calmly but Carter sighed frustrated.

"So, when are you going to give it to her?" he snapped but smacked his arm.

"She's doing the best she can, give it a rest," she scolded him. He would have been irritated if he wasn't so pleased with her attitude. He gave her a look just because and then turned back to the Doctor waiting for a response.

"I figured we'd give it 18 hours and see what happened," Dr. Shannon said with a small smile. She seemed pleased to see the shift in Skye as well and spoke to her directly. "If Commander Taylor has improved and things look good, then I'll administer a dose to you, smaller of course, because I want to monitor you more closely."

"That sounds fine, I'm not going anywhere, obviously." Skye shrugged.

"One more thing," she said. "We're going to release your mother today, she's doing remarkably well, no need for her to be cooped up here."

"Releasing her where?" Carter asked concerned.

"Jim's found a house," she explained. "They're gathering up some furnishings, since the portal closed, we've had to become a little more creative about the interiors of new homes, I mean, there was a warehouse full of appliances and some furniture and such, but it's not all the same things as when we had constant contact with the future. Some of it is older, some things people have built, anyways, you showed up at a convenient time. The construction group only builds when they have need to, but there's been a bit of a flood of newlyweds, meaning new homes and they usually build one or two extra. In this case, there's just the one extra, so you'll all have to stay there, hope that's alright."

Skye looked at Carter but he didn't know what to say so he just nodded. "Thank you," Skye told Dr. Shannon. "Thank you so much, I didn't, I guess even though you'd suggested we stay, I just didn't know that anyone would welcome us back here."

"Of course you're welcome here," she replied easily. "Now, try to rest and I'll see you when we're ready to give you some new meds, hm?"

Skye smiled and Dr. Shannon headed for the door, but Carter spoke just before she exited, "Thank you."

"You're very welcome," she said without turning as she left.

"That was rather sincere of you," Skye teased as they leaned back to sleep.

"I can be sincere, don't act like you're surprised." He pulled her into his arms and she rested her head on his chest.

"Oh, now you're predictable?" She giggled.

"Shut up and go to sleep, doctor's orders," he mocked.

_Five Months Later_

The crying, he didn't really think about all the crying. He'd considered the sleepless nights, the shit, the puke, the piss (he'd been pissed on at least twice and he didn't enjoy it,) the helplessness of something so tiny, and yes, vaguely in passing he'd realized there would be crying, but dammit, the kid had a set of lungs and he used them. At all hours. Without reason. Without need. His son liked to cry.

"It's your turn," Skye said as she rolled over to face him in bed. She didn't open her eyes, just swatted at him.

"No, not even a little," Carter said his voice rough with sleep. "It's still your turn."

"Still my turn? I got him not half an hour ago, how is it my turn?" she whined.

"A turn lasts for an hour, if Junior wakes up multiple times in an hour, that counts as your turn," he said as the baby continued to scream in the other room.

"Then my hour is already over," she said ripping the covers from him as she turned away from him leaving him with goose bumps and scurrying closer to her to retrieve the blanket.

"The hour started at the first pick up, that was 30 minutes ago, you said so yourself." He pulled some of the blanket from her, but she held on tight and he was left with very little to cover himself with.

"Go fuck yourself," she threw over her shoulder.

"Such a dirty mouth, do you kiss our son with that mouth?" he teased. Skye didn't find it amusing though, she turned back to face him and finally opened her eyes to glare at him.

Just as Skye started to open her mouth, the door opened and a very grumpy Deb blinded them with light from the hallway and a still screaming baby.

"I'm looking for a new place to live." She walked to the bed, held out the baby, and waited for one of them to take him. Both turned to look at each other again, about to argue, but Deb leaned over Skye and laid the baby in between them on the mattress. "The earplugs are going in, goodnight." She turned on her heel and walked out, practically slamming the door shut.

"I think we made her mad," Skye said obviously.

"You think?" Carter replied smartly, speaking a bit louder because of the still crying infant. "You fed him, right?"

Skye rolled her eyes at him. "And changed him and burped him and sang to him. He obviously isn't tired. But I am!"

"Okay, okay," he said reaching for the baby. "Let's go for a walk, alright Junior?"

"Stop calling him Junior," she demanded. "His name is Alex!"

"Right, for your father, that makes him a junior," he replied with a grin. Skye sighed, this was a losing battle; he wasn't sure why she still fought it. "We'll be outside."

"No, Carter, he'll wake the whole colony," she said pleadingly. "We're already the talk of the town, like we need one more reason for people to stare."

"People are only staring because we're so damned attractive." He dodged a pillow and opened the door. "Say 'night' to momma, Junior." Skye just groaned and pulled the blanket up over her head.

The baby cried still, even as Carter made his way through the house he thought was too plush just months ago. Now it felt like home. Of course, it helped that they'd acquired a shit ton of stuff. He opened the back door and felt the cool breeze of the night, well, early morning, air. Alex whined a minute but once fully outside, he calmed down.

"You know, I was just sure you needed to live in Terra Nova, not in a tree house," he said to the baby nestled against his bare chest. "But you gotta go and make me feel like an idiot, you love being outside, you little snot." Carter said. He made himself comfortable on the lawn chair in the yard. "I mean, sure, your mom needed to stay here to get better and your grandma sure as hell wasn't going back, but here you are not even two months old making your old man feel stupid. At least here we've got a comfy chair outside. Camp wasn't really heavy on the luxuries like comfy chairs. You probably wouldn't have liked the place, for one thing, we would have already been tossed out of camp because of your screaming."

The baby sighed against his chest and settled down to sleep; Carter rubbed his back and closed his own eyes. "The kind of dinosaurs you would attract with that noise, they'd come from miles," he said lazily before drifting off to sleep himself.

"Hey, Baby Whisperer," Skye said quietly so as not to wake the baby. It was late morning, he could tell by the sun, and Skye gestured for him to scoot over before she wedged herself onto the chair next to him, her head against his shoulder. "Why does he like it outside?"

"He's trying to piss me off," Carter said with a chuckle. "Here I thought I'd be the big man and stay here and now he's trying to tell me a tree house would have been just fine."

"You want to go back?" she asked with a smile. But he shook his head.

"Hell no, I've gotten really attached to hot water and clean clothes again."

"Spoiled," she replied rolling her eyes.

"Well, I also like that you're healthy, that wouldn't have happened out there," he said tilting his head in the direction of the fence that lay just beyond their yard. "And Mira would hate this kid." The baby in question sneezed and smacked his lips before resuming his peaceful rest. "I mean, look at him, he's ugly, he's loud, and he shits on everything."

"Shut up," Skye scolded him as she ran her fingers softly over the baby's head. "He's not ugly, except when he makes that face, because he got that face from you."

"Maybe we should let him sleep with the windows open, I mean, I don't mind sleeping out here, but I'd occasionally like to sleep in the same bed with you," he said honestly. Skye blushed and his brow furrowed. "Did you just blush?" She covered her face and giggled. "I didn't know I could do that anymore, make you blush, I mean."

"Don't let it go to your head," she replied before kissing him lightly. "I made breakfast, and we've got things to do today, so you're going to have to get up. I'll take Jun-" Skye stopped and looked at Carter shocked. "Alex, I meant Alex, oh Jesus Christ, this is all your fault."

Carter smiled wickedly and tried very hard not to laugh because he knew it would wake the sleeping baby. "I win."

"Jackass," she said shaking her head.


End file.
